from the window and her mother answered--and then she was
gone like a dream, and the loneliness closed down more overwhelming than
ever before.

Elinor was at Goodwood, her name in all the society papers, and even a
description of one of her dresses, which delighted and made proud the
whole population of Windyhill. The paper which contained it, and which,
I believe, belonged originally to Miss Dale, passed from hand to hand
through almost the entire community; the servants getting it at last,
and handing it round among the humbler friends, who read it, half a
dozen women together round a cottage door, wiping their hands upon their
aprons before they would touch the paper, with many an exclamation and
admiring outcry. And then her name appeared among the lists of smart
people who were going to the North--now here, now there--in company with
many other fine names. It gave the Windyhill people a great deal of
amusement, and if Mrs. Dennistoun did not quite share this feeling it
was a thing for which her friends blamed her gently. "For only think
what a fine thing for Elinor to go everywhere among the best people, and
see life like that!" "My dear friend," said the Rector, "you know we
cannot hope to keep our children always with us. They must go out into
the world while we old birds stay at home; and we must not--we really
must not--grudge them their good times, as the Americans say." It was
more wonderful than words could tell to Mrs. Dennistoun that it should
be imagined she was grudging Elinor her "good time!"

The autumn went on, with those occasional public means of following her
footsteps which, indeed, made even John Tatham--who was not in an
ordinary way addicted to the _Morning Post_, being after his fashion a
Liberal in politics and far from aristocratical in his sentiments
generally--study that paper, and also other papers less worthy: and
with, of course, many letters from Elinor, which gave more trustworthy
accounts of her proceedings. These letters, however, were far less long,
far less detailed, than they had once been; often written in a hurry,
and short, containing notes of where she was going, and of a continual
change of address, rather than of anything that could be called
information about herself. John, I think, went only once to the Cottage
during the interval which followed. He went abroad as usual in
the Long Vacation, and then he had this on his mind--that he had
half-surreptitiously obtained a