, the useful that puts a spell on us in life. It's
the bizarre, the dimly seen, the mysterious for good or evil.
The sun was out again when I rode up to the farm; its yellow thatch shone
through the trees as if sheltering a store of gladness and good news.
John Ford himself opened the door to me.
He began with an apology, which made me feel more than ever an intruder;
then he said:
"I have not spoken to my granddaughter--I waited to see Dan Treffry."
He was stern and sad-eyed, like a man with a great weight of grief on his
shoulders. He looked as if he had not slept; his dress was out of order,
he had not taken his clothes off, I think. He isn't a man whom you can
pity. I felt I had taken a liberty in knowing of the matter at all. When
I told him where we had been, he said:
"It was good of you to take this trouble. That you should have had to!
But since such things have come to pass--" He made a gesture full of
horror. He gave one the impression of a man whose pride was struggling
against a mortal hurt. Presently he asked:
"You saw him, you say? He admitted this marriage? Did he give an
explanation?"
I tried to make Pearse's point of view clear. Before this old man, with
his inflexible will and sense of duty, I felt as if I held a brief for
Zachary, and must try to do him justice.
"Let me understand," he said at last. "He stole her, you say, to make
sure; and deserts her within a fortnight."
"He says he meant to take her--"
"Do you believe that?"
Before I could answer, I saw Pasiance standing at the window. How long
she had been there I don't know.
"Is it true that he is going to leave me behind?" she cried out.
I could only nod.
"Did you hear him your own self?"
"Yes."
She stamped her foot.
"But he promised! He promised!"
John Ford went towards her.
"Don't touch me, grandfather! I hate every one! Let him do what he
likes, I don't care."
John Ford's face turned quite grey.
"Pasiance," he said, "did you want to leave me so much?"
She looked straight at us, and said sharply:
"What's the good of telling stories. I can't help its hurting you."
"What did you think you would find away from here?"
She laughed.
"Find? I don't know--nothing; I wouldn't be stifled anyway. Now I
suppose you'll shut me up because I'm a weak girl, not strong like men!"
"Silence!" said John Ford; "I will make him take you."
"You shan't!" she cried; "I won't let you. H
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