her favourite solace at that
time. She had but few opportunities now for long solitary walks. She
saw the autumn fading away, melting in rain and cold fog, without its
having been made use of. It had been as unfavourable a season as the
summer,--dreary, unproductive, disappointing in every way; but there had
been days in the latter autumn when the sun had shown his dim face, when
the dank hedges had looked fresh, and the fallen leaves in the
wood-paths had rustled under the tread of the squirrel; and Margaret
would on such days have liked to spend the whole morning in rambles by
herself. But there were reasons why she should not. Almost before the
chilliness of the coming season began to be felt, hardship was
complained of throughout the country. The prices of provisions were
inordinately high; and the evil consequences which, in the rural
districts, follow upon a scarcity, began to make themselves felt. The
poachers were daring beyond belief; and deep was the enmity between the
large proprietors and the labourers around them. The oldest men and
women, and children scarcely able to walk, were found trespassing day by
day in all plantations, with bags, aprons, or pinafores, full of
fir-cones, and wood snapped off from the trees, or plucked out of the
hedges. There was no end to repairing the fences. There were
unpleasant rumours, too, of its being no longer safe to walk singly in
the more retired places. No such thing as highway robbery had ever
before been heard of at Deerbrook, within the memory of the oldest
inhabitant; the oldest of the inhabitants being Jim Bird, the man of a
hundred years. But there was reason now for the caution. Mr Jones's
meat-cart had been stopped on the high-road, by two men who came out of
the hedge, and helped themselves to what the cart contained. An
ill-looking fellow had crossed the path of Mrs James and her young
sister in the Verdon woods, evidently with the intention of stopping the
ladies; but luckily the jingling of a timber-wain was heard below, and
the man had retreated. Mr Grey had desired that the ladies of his
family would not go further without his escort than a mile out and back
again on the high-road. They were not to attempt the lanes. The Miss
Andersons no longer came into Deerbrook in their pony-chaise; and Mrs
Howell reported to all her customers that Lady Hunter never walked in
her own grounds without a footman behind her, two dogs before her, and
the ga