<000005>"'Tis the fiend Calverley, or one of his imps," exclaimed Holgrave, springing forward to the broken wall; but if any object had really presented itself, it had, in a singular manner, disappearedfor Holgrave, after a few minutes of anxious search, returned without having discovered the trace of a human being.
"Again I hope I am not in your way. I've been over to see the carter's widow at Socknershhe died two days ago, you know, and she hasn't a penny to go on with. Then when I saw the storm coming I thought I would take a short cut home across the fields; I was caught after alland here I am!""Yeshe's fair made me hate Odiam. I liked the place well enough when I was a little lad, but he's made[Pg 411] me sick of it. It's all very well living on a farm and working on it, but when you're supposed to give up your whole life to it and think of nothing else, well, it's too much.""But wot's to become of us?"
ONE:"It is no mockery, stewardI have done my duty; and if you cannot do yours, is it my fault?" And then, shaking off Calverley's grasp, he mounted his horse, and with his attendants, amidst deafening cheers, took the road to the castle.
She felt that he would comehe would return to her in the reaction that swung him from Rose. But would she be able to keep him? She did not feel so sure of thatfor that did not depend on her or on him, but on that mysterious force outside themselves with which they had both already struggled in vain.She asked him a few questions about the lambing, then:"Wot?" he asked her, and she, in her dream, felt a spasm of delight, for it was all happening so naturallyit must be true."Robert Backfield, I arrest you on the charge of stealing a pocket-book containing bonds and money from Squire Ralph Bardon of Flightshot."