ffair long after he had forgotten all about it.

II

During the first weeks at Cow Farm Mary was happy. She had then many
especial private joys, such as climbing into one of the old apple trees
behind the house and reading there, safe from the world, or inventing
for herself wonderful adventures out of the dark glooms and sunlit
spaces of the orchard, or creeping about the lofts and barns as though
they were full of the most desperate dangers and hazards that she alone
had the pluck and intelligence to overcome. Then Mrs. Monk was kind
to her, and listened to her imaginative chatter with a most marvellous
patience. Mary did not know that, after these narrations, she would
shake her head and say to her husband: "Not long for this world, I'm
thinking, poor worm...not long for this world."

Then, at first Jeremy was kind and considerate. He was so happy that
he did not mind what anyone did, and he would listen to Mary's stories
quite in the old way, whistling to himself, not thinking about her at
all perhaps, really, but very patient. After the first fortnight he
slipped away from her again--and now more than ever before. He went off
for long walks with Hamlet, refusing to take her with them; he answered
her questions so vaguely that she could see that he paid her no
attention at all; he turned upon her and rent her if she complained.
And it was all, she was sure, that horrible dog. Jeremy was always with
Hamlet now. The free life that the farm gave them, no lessons, no set
hours, no care for appearances, left them to choose their own ways, and
so developed their individualities. Helen was now more and more with
her elders, was becoming that invaluable thing, "a great help to her
mother," and even, to her own inexhaustible pride, paid two calls with
Mrs. Cole on the wives of neighbouring farmers. Then, Barbara absorbed
more than ever of Helen's attention, and Mary was not allowed to share
in these rites and services because "she always made Barbara cry."

She was, therefore, very much alone, and felt all her injuries twice as
deeply as she had felt them before. Hamlet began to be an obsession with
her. She had always had a habit of talking to herself, and now she could
be heard telling herself that if it were not for the dog, Jeremy would
always be with her, would play with her, walk with her, laugh with her
as he used to do. She acquired now an awkward habit of gazing at him
with passionate intensity. He would