The Woodlanders - Page 220/314

As Melbury surmised, Fitzpiers had in the darkness taken Blossom for

Darling, and he had not discovered his mistake when he came up opposite

the boy, though he was somewhat surprised at the liveliness of his

usually placid mare. The only other pair of eyes on the spot whose

vision was keen as the young carter's were those of the horse; and,

with that strongly conservative objection to the unusual which animals

show, Blossom, on eying the collar under the tree--quite invisible to

Fitzpiers--exercised none of the patience of the older horse, but shied

sufficiently to unseat so second-rate an equestrian as the surgeon.

He fell, and did not move, lying as Melbury afterwards found him. The

boy ran away, salving his conscience for the desertion by thinking how

vigorously he would spread the alarm of the accident when he got to

Hintock--which he uncompromisingly did, incrusting the skeleton event

with a load of dramatic horrors.

Grace had returned, and the fly hired on her account, though not by her

husband, at the Crown Hotel, Shottsford-Forum, had been paid for and

dismissed. The long drive had somewhat revived her, her illness being

a feverish intermittent nervousness which had more to do with mind than

body, and she walked about her sitting-room in something of a hopeful

mood. Mrs. Melbury had told her as soon as she arrived that her

husband had returned from London. He had gone out, she said, to see a

patient, as she supposed, and he must soon be back, since he had had no

dinner or tea. Grace would not allow her mind to harbor any suspicion

of his whereabouts, and her step-mother said nothing of Mrs. Charmond's

rumored sorrows and plans of departure.

So the young wife sat by the fire, waiting silently. She had left

Hintock in a turmoil of feeling after the revelation of Mrs. Charmond,

and had intended not to be at home when her husband returned. But she

had thought the matter over, and had allowed her father's influence to

prevail and bring her back; and now somewhat regretted that Edgar's

arrival had preceded hers.

By-and-by Mrs. Melbury came up-stairs with a slight air of flurry and

abruptness.

"I have something to tell--some bad news," she said. "But you must not

be alarmed, as it is not so bad as it might have been. Edgar has been

thrown off his horse. We don't think he is hurt much. It happened in

the wood the other side of Nellcombe Bottom, where 'tis said the ghosts

of the brothers walk."

She went on to give a few of the particulars, but none of the invented

horrors that had been communicated by the boy. "I thought it better to

tell you at once," she added, "in case he should not be very well able

to walk home, and somebody should bring him."