coming slowly from the gate
across the grass, his arm round her shoulders, hers round his waist.
With their backs turned to him, they passed the corner of the house,
across where the garden sloped away. There they stood above the wide
country, their bodies outlined against a sky fast growing light,
evidently waiting for the sun to rise. Silent they stood, while the
birds, one by one, twittered out their first calls. And suddenly Felix
saw the boy fling his hand up into the air. The Sun! Far away on the
gray horizon was a flare of red!

CHAPTER XVIII

The anxieties of the Lady Mallorings of this life concerning the moral
welfare of their humbler neighbors are inclined to march in front of
events. The behavior in Tryst's cottage was more correct than it would
have been in nine out of ten middle or upper class demesnes under similar
conditions. Between the big laborer and 'that woman,' who, since the
epileptic fit, had again come into residence, there had passed nothing
whatever that might not have been witnessed by Biddy and her two
nurslings. For love is an emotion singularly dumb and undemonstrative in
those who live the life of the fields; passion a feeling severely beneath
the thumb of a propriety born of the age-long absence of excitants,
opportunities, and the aesthetic sense; and those two waited, almost as a
matter of course, for the marriage which was forbidden them in this
parish. The most they did was to sit and look at one another.

On the day of which Felix had seen the dawn at Hampstead, Sir Gerald's
agent tapped on the door of Tryst's cottage, and was answered by Biddy,
just in from school for the midday meal.

"Your father home, my dear?"

"No, sir; Auntie's in."

"Ask your auntie to come and speak to me."

The mother-child vanished up the narrow stairs, and the agent sighed. A
strong-built, leathery-skinned man in a brown suit and leggings, with a
bristly little moustache and yellow whites to his eyes, he did not, as he
had said to his wife that morning, 'like the job a little bit.' And
while he stood there waiting, Susie and Billy emerged from the kitchen
and came to stare at him. The agent returned that stare till a voice
behind him said: "Yes, sir?"

'That woman' was certainly no great shakes to look at: a fresh, decent,
faithful sort of body! And he said gruffly: "Mornin', miss. Sorry to
say my orders are to make a clearance here. I suppose Tryst didn't think
we should a