Women and children came out of the cottages as she went swiftly past,
and she exchanged greetings with them; but she was in too great a hurry
to stop, and one child followed after her with bitter complaint.
She stood for a moment or two talking to some of the men mending their
nets on the jetty, called down to Dick, who was lying--he was always
reclining on something--basking in the stern of his anchored boat; then
she went, more slowly, up the hill again.
As she neared the cottage, a sound rose from the house and mingled with
the music of the stream. It was the yelp of staghounds. She stopped and
listened, and wondered whether the stag would run down the hill, as it
sometimes did; then she went on. Presently she heard another sound--the
tap, tap of a horse's hoofs. Her quick ear distinguished it as different
from the slow pacing of the horses which drew the village carts, and she
looked up the road curiously. It was not the doctor's horse; she knew
the stamp, stamp of his old gray cob. This was a lighter, more nervous
tread.
Within twenty paces of the cottage she saw the horse and horseman. The
former was a beautiful creature, almost thoroughbred, as she knew; for
every woman in the district was a horsewoman by instinct and
association. The latter was a gentleman in a well-made riding suit of
cords. He was riding slowly, his whip striking against his leg absently,
his head bent.
That he was not one of the local gentry Nell saw at the first glance. In
that first glance also she noted a certain indescribable grace, an air
of elegance, which, as a rule, was certainly lacking in the local
gentry. She could not see his face, but there was something strange,
distinguished in his attitude and the way he carried himself; and,
almost unconsciously, her pace slackened.
Strangers in Shorne Mills were rare. Nell, being a woman, was curious.
As she slowly reached the gate, the man came almost alongside. And at
that moment a rabbit scuttled across the road, right under the horse's
nose. With the nervousness of the thoroughbred, it shied. The man had it
in hand in an instant, and touched it with his left spur to keep it away
from the girl. The horse sprang sideways, set its near foot on a stone,
and fell, and the next instant the man was lying at Nell's feet.