The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy (best books to read for women .txt) 📗

Creedle groaned tragically.

Melbury, not suspecting the presence of Fitzpiers, coupled this account with the mantrap and the scream; he could not understand what it all meant; but the sinister event of the trap made him follow on. Accordingly, they bore away towards the town, shouting as they went, and in due course emerged upon the highway.

Nearing Sherton-Abbas, the previous information was confirmed by other strollers, though the gentleman’s supporting arm had disappeared from these later accounts. At last they were so near Sherton that Melbury informed his faithful followers that he did not wish to drag them farther at so late an hour, since he could go on alone and inquire if the woman who had been seen were really Grace. But they would not leave him alone in his anxiety, and trudged onward till the lamplight from the town began to illuminate their fronts. At the entrance to the High Street they got fresh scent of the pursued, but coupled with the new condition that the lady in the costume described had been going up the street alone.

“Faith!⁠—I believe she’s mesmerized, or walking in her sleep,” said Melbury.

However, the identity of this woman with Grace was by no means certain; but they plodded along the street. Percombe, the hairdresser, who had despoiled Marty of her tresses, was standing at his door, and they duly put inquiries to him.

“Ah⁠—how’s Little Hintock folk by now?” he said, before replying. “Never have I been over there since one winter night some three year ago⁠—and then I lost myself finding it. How can ye live in such a one-eyed place? Great Hintock is bad enough⁠—hut Little Hintock⁠—the bats and owls would drive me melancholy-mad! It took two days to raise my sperrits to their true pitch again after that night I went there. Mr. Melbury, sir, as a man’s that put by money, why not retire and live here, and see something of the world?”

The responses at last given by him to their queries guided them to the building that offered the best accommodation in Sherton⁠—having been enlarged contemporaneously with the construction of the railway⁠—namely, the Earl of Wessex Hotel.

Leaving the others without, Melbury made prompt inquiry here. His alarm was lessened, though his perplexity was increased, when he received a brief reply that such a lady was in the house.

“Do you know if it is my daughter?” asked Melbury.

The waiter did not.

“Do you know the lady’s name?”

Of this, too, the household was ignorant, the hotel having been taken by brand-new people from a distance. They knew the gentleman very well by sight, and had not thought it necessary to ask him to enter his name.

“Oh, the gentleman appears again now,” said Melbury to himself. “Well, I want to see the lady,” he declared.

A message was taken up, and after some delay the shape of Grace appeared descending round the bend of the staircase, looking as if she lived there, but in other respects rather guilty and frightened.

“Why⁠—what the name⁠—” began her father. “I thought you went out to get parsley!”

“Oh, yes⁠—I did⁠—but it is all right,” said Grace, in a flurried whisper. “I am not alone here. I am here with Edgar. It is entirely owing to an accident, father.”

“Edgar! An accident! How does he come here? I thought he was two hundred mile off.”

“Yes, so he is⁠—I mean he has got a beautiful practice two hundred miles off; he has bought it with his own money, some that came to him. But he travelled here, and I was nearly caught in a mantrap, and that’s how it is I am here. We were just thinking of sending a messenger to let you know.”

Melbury did not seem to be particularly enlightened by this explanation.

“You were caught in a mantrap?”

“Yes; my dress was. That’s how it arose. Edgar is upstairs in his own sitting-room,” she went on. “He would not mind seeing you, I am sure.”

“Oh, faith, I don’t want to see him! I have seen him too often a’ready. I’ll see him another time, perhaps, if ’tis to oblige ’ee.”

“He came to see me; he wanted to consult me about this large partnership I speak of, as it is very promising.”

“Oh, I am glad to hear it,” said Melbury, dryly.

A pause ensued, during which the inquiring faces and whity-brown clothes of Melbury’s companions appeared in the doorway.

“Then bain’t you coming home with us?” he asked.

“I⁠—I think not,” said Grace, blushing.

“H’m⁠—very well⁠—you are your own mistress,” he returned, in tones which seemed to assert otherwise. “Good night;” and Melbury retreated towards the door.

“Don’t be angry, father,” she said, following him a few steps. “I have done it for the best.”

“I am not angry, though it is true I have been a little misled in this. However, good night. I must get home along.”

He left the hotel, not without relief, for to be under the eyes of strangers while he conversed with his lost child had embarrassed him much. His search-party, too, had looked awkward there, having rushed to the task of investigation⁠—some in their shirt sleeves, others in their leather aprons, and all much stained⁠—just as they had come from their work of barking, and not in their Sherton marketing attire; while Creedle, with his ropes and grapnels and air of impending tragedy, had added melancholy to gawkiness.

“Now, neighbors,” said Melbury, on joining them, “as it is getting late, we’ll leg it home again as fast as we can. I ought to tell you that there has been some mistake⁠—some arrangement entered into between Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpiers which I didn’t quite understand⁠—an important practice in the Midland counties has come to him, which made it necessary for her to join him tonight⁠—so she says. That’s all it was⁠—and I’m sorry I dragged you out.”

“Well,” said the hollow-turner, “here be we six mile from home, and nighttime, and not a hoss or four-footed creeping thing to our name. I say, we’ll have a mossel and a drop o’