e I am--you should ought to have
brought your overcoat."

"How was I to know it would turn out like this?"

"I told you it would rain."

"But not till after we'd started."

Joanna said nothing. She accepted Martin's rather unreasonable
displeasure without protest, for she felt guilty about other things. Was
he right, after all, when he said that she was putting Ansdore between
them?... She did not feel that she was, any more than she was putting
Ansdore between herself and Ellen. But she hated him to have the
thought. Should she give in and tell him he could call on Mr. Pratt on
their way home?... No, there was plenty of time to make up her mind
about that. To-day was only Tuesday, and any day up till Saturday would
do for putting in notice of banns ... she must think things over before
committing herself ... it wasn't only the shearers--there was the
hay....

Thus they came, walking apart in their own thoughts, to Jury's Gap. In a
few moments the horse was put to, and they were lurching in the ruts of
the road to Broomhill. The air was full of the sound of hissing rain, as
it fell on the shingle and in the sea and on the great brackish pools of
the old flood. Round the pools were thick beds of reeds, shivering and
moaning, while along the dykes the willows tossed their branches and the
thorn-trees rattled.

"It'll freshen up the grass," said Joanna, trying to cheer Martin.

"I was a fool not to bring my overcoat," he grumbled.

Then suddenly her heart went out to him more than ever, because he was
fractious and fretting about himself. She took one hand off the reins
and pressed his as it lay warm between her arm and her side.

"Reckon you're my own silly child," she said in a low voice.

"I'm sorry, Jo," he replied humbly, "I know I'm being a beast and
worrying you. But I'm worried about you too--you're as wet as I am."

"No, I'm not. I've got my coat. I'm not at all worried about myself--nor
about you, neither." She could not conceive of a man taking cold through
a wetting.

She had planned for him to come back to supper with her at Ansdore, but
with that fussiness which seemed so strange and pathetic, he insisted on
going straight back to North Farthing to change his clothes.

"You get into a hot bath with some mustard," he said to her, meaning
what he would do himself.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Joanna, at such an idea.

Sec.19

She did not see Martin for the next two days. He had promised to go up