FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   >>  
, though his charm of manner to herself was externally the same. She grew suspicious, if not jealous. Then one day an anonymous letter came to her--signed 'Your Well-Wisher,' which corroborated her own uneasy thoughts--suggesting coarsely that her husband was chasing a _vixen_--not a fox. No name was actually mentioned, but Mrs. Chesters realised at once who 'the woman' was. She remembered noticing a young girl at an early meet held at the castle, who had attracted her attention by her air of breeding, beauty, and faultless seat on her mare. She had learnt that the girl was the daughter of an old yeoman farmer who lived on his farm, quaintly called 'The Bower,' far outbye on the moorland beside the Blackburn Lynn. She had mentioned the matter to her husband, and asked him where the girl had acquired her good looks and her breeding. He had replied--and she thought now--with a slight uneasiness of manner, that Miss Todd came of a 'grayne' that had lived on the Border before ever the Normans came into the land, that by intermarrying with a few other ancient yeomen families a distinct and natural aristocratic type had resulted. 'Clean living, fresh air, and as much hunting as possible,' have all assisted. Nature also has assimilated the lines of her children's faces to the classical lines wind-chiselled of her great fells. Their oval faces, blue eyes, fair hair, and clean-chiselled features are her endowment. 'The Todds,' he had concluded with a laugh, 'have a tradition that they descend from Eylaf--one of the bodyguard of St. Cuthbert and his coffin--who, in a time of famine stole a cheese, and was for a time turned into a tod. The tod, or fox, is their totem, and him they diligently pursue.' All that he had said then came back now with special meaning. Mrs. Chesters pondered deeply as to how she had best act in this conjuncture, and had not yet determined, when on the next afternoon she overheard a scrap of conversation as she was passing beside the stables. She heard the head groom call to the stable lad to saddle a second horse and ride out to meet the Master on his way home from hunting that afternoon. 'Which way will I take?' asked the lad in reply. 'The Master rode the airt o' Ladiesdale,' the head groom had replied, for he was somewhat of a wag. _Ladiesdale_ for Liddesdale! Mrs. Chesters fled; her cheek was burning, but her mind was made up. She got out maps and discovered where 'The Bower'--om
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   >>  



Top keywords:
Chesters
 

breeding

 

replied

 
chiselled
 

afternoon

 

hunting

 

husband

 

manner

 

Master

 

Ladiesdale


mentioned

 
pursue
 

diligently

 
concluded
 
tradition
 

Cuthbert

 

coffin

 

endowment

 

cheese

 

turned


features

 

famine

 

bodyguard

 

descend

 

Liddesdale

 
discovered
 

burning

 

conjuncture

 

deeply

 

pondered


special

 

meaning

 
determined
 

stable

 

saddle

 

stables

 

passing

 

overheard

 

conversation

 

distinct


remembered
 
noticing
 

realised

 

castle

 

learnt

 
daughter
 

yeoman

 
attracted
 
attention
 

beauty