XIV

Next morning, I bethought me, I, too, had business at L--; so I mounted
my horse, and set forth on the expedition soon after breakfast. It was a
dull, drizzly day; but that was no matter: it was all the more suitable
to my frame of mind. It was likely to be a lonely journey; for it was no
market-day, and the road I traversed was little frequented at any other
time; but that suited me all the better too.

As I trotted along, however, chewing the cud of--bitter fancies, I heard
another horse at no great distance behind me; but I never conjectured who
the rider might be, or troubled my head about him, till, on slackening my
pace to ascend a gentle acclivity, or rather, suffering my horse to
slacken his pace into a lazy walk--for, rapt in my own reflections, I was
letting it jog on as leisurely as it thought proper--I lost ground, and
my fellow-traveller overtook me. He accosted me by name, for it was no
stranger--it was Mr. Lawrence! Instinctively the fingers of my whip-hand
tingled, and grasped their charge with convulsive energy; but I
restrained the impulse, and answering his salutation with a nod,
attempted to push on; but he pushed on beside me, and began to talk about
the weather and the crops. I gave the briefest possible answers to his
queries and observations, and fell back. He fell back too, and asked if
my horse was lame. I replied with a look, at which he placidly smiled.

I was as much astonished as exasperated at this singular pertinacity and
imperturbable assurance on his part. I had thought the circumstances of
our last meeting would have left such an impression on his mind as to
render him cold and distant ever after: instead of that, he appeared not
only to have forgotten all former offences, but to be impenetrable to all
present incivilities. Formerly, the slightest hint, or mere fancied
coldness in tone or glance, had sufficed to repulse him: now, positive
rudeness could not drive him away. Had he heard of my disappointment;
and was he come to witness the result, and triumph in my despair? I
grasped my whip with more determined energy than before--but still
forbore to raise it, and rode on in silence, waiting for some more
tangible cause of offence, before I opened the floodgates of my soul and
poured out the dammed-up fury that was foaming and swelling within.

'Markham,' said he, in his usual quiet tone, 'why do you quarrel with
your friends, because you have been disappointed in o