relieved to get her
off his hands by this arrangement, and as far as they were concerned the
matter was settled. She now simply waited to see the lady again.

The day and the hour came; but a drizzling rain fell. Elizabeth-Jane
having now changed her orbit from one of gay independence to laborious
self-help, thought the weather good enough for such declined glory as
hers, if her friend would only face it--a matter of doubt. She went to
the boot-room where her pattens had hung ever since her apotheosis; took
them down, had their mildewed leathers blacked, and put them on as she
had done in old times. Thus mounted, and with cloak and umbrella, she
went off to the place of appointment--intending, if the lady were not
there, to call at the house.

One side of the churchyard--the side towards the weather--was sheltered
by an ancient thatched mud wall whose eaves overhung as much as one or
two feet. At the back of the wall was a corn-yard with its granary and
barns--the place wherein she had met Farfrae many months earlier. Under
the projection of the thatch she saw a figure. The young lady had come.

Her presence so exceptionally substantiated the girl's utmost hopes that
she almost feared her good fortune. Fancies find rooms in the strongest
minds. Here, in a churchyard old as civilization, in the worst of
weathers, was a strange woman of curious fascinations never seen
elsewhere: there might be some devilry about her presence. However,
Elizabeth went on to the church tower, on whose summit the rope of a
flagstaff rattled in the wind; and thus she came to the wall.

The lady had such a cheerful aspect in the drizzle that Elizabeth forgot
her fancy. "Well," said the lady, a little of the whiteness of her teeth
appearing with the word through the black fleece that protected her
face, "have you decided?"

"Yes, quite," said the other eagerly.

"Your father is willing?"

"Yes."

"Then come along."

"When?"

"Now--as soon as you like. I had a good mind to send to you to come to
my house, thinking you might not venture up here in the wind. But as I
like getting out of doors, I thought I would come and see first."

"It was my own thought."

"That shows we shall agree. Then can you come to-day? My house is so
hollow and dismal that I want some living thing there."

"I think I might be able to," said the girl, reflecting.

Voices were borne over to them at that instant on the wind and raindrops
from the other side