For there can be hardly anything less connected
with a woman's personality than drapery which she has neither designed,
manufactured, cut, sewed, or even seen, except by a glance of approval
when told that such and such a shape and color must be had because it
has been decided by others as imperative at that particular time.

What people, therefore, saw of her in a cursory view was very little;
in truth, mainly something that was not she. The woman herself was a
shadowy, conjectural creature who had little to do with the outlines
presented to Sherton eyes; a shape in the gloom, whose true description
could only be approximated by putting together a movement now and a
glance then, in that patient and long-continued attentiveness which
nothing but watchful loving-kindness ever troubles to give.

There was a little delay in their setting out from the town, and Marty
South took advantage of it to hasten forward, with the view of escaping
them on the way, lest they should feel compelled to spoil their
tete-a-tete by asking her to ride. She walked fast, and one-third of
the journey was done, and the evening rapidly darkening, before she
perceived any sign of them behind her. Then, while ascending a hill,
she dimly saw their vehicle drawing near the lowest part of the
incline, their heads slightly bent towards each other; drawn together,
no doubt, by their souls, as the heads of a pair of horses well in hand
are drawn in by the rein. She walked still faster.

But between these and herself there was a carriage, apparently a
brougham, coming in the same direction, with lighted lamps. When it
overtook her--which was not soon, on account of her pace--the scene was
much darker, and the lights glared in her eyes sufficiently to hide the
details of the equipage.

It occurred to Marty that she might take hold behind this carriage and
so keep along with it, to save herself the mortification of being
overtaken and picked up for pity's sake by the coming pair.
Accordingly, as the carriage drew abreast of her in climbing the long
ascent, she walked close to the wheels, the rays of the nearest lamp
penetrating her very pores. She had only just dropped behind when the
carriage stopped, and to her surprise the coachman asked her, over his
shoulder, if she would ride. What made the question more surprising
was that it came in obedience to an order from the interior of the
vehicle.

Marty gladly assented, for she was weary, very