HAPTER X
GRACE'S CHOICE
A week after Hallam's visit, Kit, one afternoon, started for Tarnside. He
had been forced to go to London about some American business, but this
was a relief, since it gave him an excuse for delay. At his interview
with Osborn he had left the most important thing unsaid, because it might
have jarred Mrs. Osborn, whom he thought his friend, had he asked for
Grace at the moment he had put her father in his debt. In fact, he saw it
would be tactful if he waited for some time, but he did not mean to do
so. To some extent, he distrusted Osborn and resolved to make his request
before the latter's gratitude began to cool. Grace must have full liberty
to refuse, but he did not owe her father much.
He wondered how she would choose and his step got slower until he stopped
and, sitting on a broken wall, looked up the valley. The day was calm and
the sun shone on smooth pasture and yellow corn. The becks had shrunk in
the shady ghylls and a thin white line was all that marked the fall where
the main stream leaped down the Force Crag. On the steep slopes the
heather made purple patches among the bent-grass and Malton moor shone
red. Kit loved the quiet hills; he had known intrigue and adventure and
now saw his work waiting in his native dale. The soil called him; his job
was to extend the plow-land and improve his flocks.
This was important, because he could not tell how far Grace would
sympathize. Her father liked the leading place; an effort for display
and such luxury as could be cheaply got were the rule at Tarnside. It was
possible that Grace had unconsciously accepted a false standard of
values. Kit might, for her sake, have changed his mode of life, had he
thought it good for her, but he did not. She must have inherited
something of Osborn's tastes and to copy the Tarnside customs might
encourage their development. It was better to remove her from insidious
influences to fresh surroundings where she would, so to speak, breath a
bracing air. But this could not be done unless she were willing to go.
Kit knitted his brows as he mused, because there was not much to indicate
whether he would find Grace willing or not. She liked him well enough,
but he had not ventured to pose as her lover. He was too proud and
jealous for her; knowing what Osborn thought, he would not involve her in
a secret intrigue. Yet she had been kind and he had now and then got a
hint of an elusive tenderness. Moreover, in
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