"Oh! how dreadful," said Valmai, "how could he bear it? and how he must
have suffered since then; but I will make it all up to him, and now I
understand his conduct the other evening. Oh, you slow old puffing
engine, make haste, and take me to Blaenos Station, then there will be
a whole hour in that crawling coach, and then comes dear Caer Madoc!
and oh! it is market day. Cardo always drives in with Dr. Hughes on
that day, and walks home in the evening. I will walk! It will be like
that dear, happy night when we first met!" And at last her excitement
calming down, she settled herself again into her corner, and while she
sat silent and immovable, she followed out from beginning to end the
incidents of the last few weeks. Although Gwladys's mistaken
interference had caused her such deep sorrow, and such a bitter
experience as that of Cardo's avoidance of her at the Merediths, she
felt nothing but pity for the sister whom she knew would have
sacrificed life itself to save her from trouble.
As the train sped onwards, between the blue hills and by the silver
streams, her thoughts outran its speed, and in fancy she saw Cardo
hurrying along the high road to meet her at Caer Madoc. And he as he
drove along beside Dr. Hughes, was full of tender longings and thoughts
of her. She seemed to fill the air around him, she seemed to press
upon his inner consciousness with such vividness, that he felt it
difficult to restrain his voice, and prevent himself from calling her
name aloud.
At last, the evening shadows began to fall over sleepy Caer Madoc, and
Valmai, alighting from the coach in the "Red Dragon" yard, looked round
hurriedly. With her, too, the impression of Cardo's presence had been
so vivid, that she almost expected to see him waiting for her; but no
Cardo was to be seen! After leaving her luggage in the ostler's
charge, she hastened out through the old archway which opened into the
High Street.
"No, I prefer walking, thank you; you can send my luggage on
to-morrow," she said to the kindly officious man, who followed her to
offer his services as driver, and she turned up the street with a heart
full of exultant hopes. Here were the last straggling houses that
reached up the hilly street, leading to the moor. Her steps were light
and springy, as she followed the familiar road, now almost deserted by
the last pedestrians returning from the market. The sun had set behind
the sea, which she already saw stretching away to the west, a soft grey
haze enfolded the hills which rose before her, and the moon was rising
to her right and blending her silver light with that of the departed
sun, which still left a golden glow over the west. Valmai walked on
steadily until she reached the first milestone, and sitting down beside
it, she rested awhile, almost hidden by its shadow. It was not one of
the modern insignificant, square-cut, stiff stones, but a solid boulder
of granite, one of the many strewn about the moor. She listened
breathlessly to the different sounds that reached her ears, sounds
which seemed to awake in the stillness, as she listened. There was a
faint and distant rumbling of wheels in the town behind her, and surely
some strains of music, which carried her back in memory to another
evening in the past! Down below the cliffs on her left she heard the
mysterious whispering of the sea; in the little coppice across the road
a wood-pigeon cooed her soft "good-night"; and away in the hay-fields,
stretching inland, she heard the corncrakes' grating call; but no human
footstep broke the silence of night. Surely Cardo would have gone to
market on such a lovely day! or, who knows? perhaps he was too sad to
care for town or market? But hark! a footstep on the hard, dry road.
She listened breathlessly as it drew nearer in the gathering grey of
the twilight. Steadily it tramped, tramped on, and peeping round the
milestone, Valmai at last saw a grey figure emerge from the haze. It
was Cardo, she felt sure, and rising at once, she hurried some distance
on the road in a sudden feeling of nervousness. The steady tramp,
tramp came ever nearer, and, looking through the increasing shadows,
she saw distinctly the well-remembered form, the broad shoulders, the
firmly-knit frame, and in a fresh access of nervousness she hurried on
again--putting off the moment of recognition which she longed for, and
endeavouring to reach a hollow in the high bank, where she might lie
hidden until she had regained courage and calmness.