young, certainly still in her middle twenties, yet
worn; florid yet haggard; exuberant and upstanding of body, yet bowed at
the shoulders as if she were fragile. But the man was odd enough. He was
pale and had a very long neck, and wore an expression of extreme
foolishness. From the frown with which he was accompanying his gaping
stare it was evident that his mind was so vague and wandering that he
found it difficult to concentrate it; she was reminded of an inexpert
person she had once seen trying to put a white rabbit into a bag. She
looked again at the girl, with that contempt she felt, now that she had
Richard, for all women who let themselves mate with unworthy men, and
found that her dark eyes were fixed sullenly, almost hungrily, on
Richard. She laid her hand on Richard's arm and cried: "If it's not
impudence, it's the next thing to it, staring like that into a pairson's
room! They're collecting, I suppose. Away and give them a penny."

"No," said Richard. "They are not collecting. That is Roger."

CHAPTER IX

Ellen could not understand why Richard whispered explosively as they
turned away from the window: "Pin up your hair! Quickly! We must go down
at once!" or why he hurried her downstairs without giving her time to
use her brush and comb. When they got down into the old parlour Richard
went to the side door that opened into the farmyard and flung it open,
beginning a sentence of greeting, but there was nothing to be seen but
the grey sheds, the wood-pile, and the puddle-pocked ground. He uttered
an exasperated exclamation, and drew it to, saying to Ellen: "Open the
front door! Please, dear." She did so, but saw nothing save the dark and
narrow garden and the black trees against the white north sky. "What in
Christ's name are they doing?" Richard burst out, and flung open the
side door again. Both put their heads out over the threshold to see if
the two visitors were standing about anywhere, and a gust of wind that
was making the trees beat their arms darted down on the house and turned
the draught between the two open doors into a hurricane. Ellen squealed
as her door banged and struck her shoulder before she had time to steer
clear of it. "Oh, my poor darling!" said Richard, and he was coming
towards her, when they heard the glug-glug-glug of water dripping from
the table to the floor, and saw that the draught had overturned a vase
filled with silver boughs of honesty. He picked it up and uttered
a