THE GLOVE TAKEN UP.
Every member of the little party felt sensible of relief when they came
out on the high road and left the moor behind. For some time all had
been silent; the efforts to start and maintain conversation had signally
failed, and a funeral party would have been livelier.
As soon as the hoofs of the horses rang on the roadway, the fetters that
had bound the tongues were thrown aside, and words a few were
interchanged.
After ten minutes or a quarter of an hour a little tavern by the wayside
was reached, named the Hare and Hounds; and then Anthony Cleverdon laid
his hand on the bit of the horse Urith rode.
"My cob must bait here," he said--"at least, have a mouthful; so must
you. I will go in and see what can be provided, and bid the landlady lay
the table."
"I thank you," said Urith; "but I desire to go home at once. The
distance is in no way considerable. I know where I am. But surely I hear
my uncle's voice."
That individual appeared at the open door. He was a stout man, with a
very red face and a watery eye. His wig was awry. He stood with a pipe
in one hand and a tankard in the other.
"Aha!" shouted Solomon Gibbs. "I said the truth! I knew that it was in
vain for me to go in quest of you on the moors, niece. Told your mother
so; but she wouldn't believe me. Come on--come, and let's be
jolly--drive away dull melancholy! I knew that you must come on to the
road somewhere; and, if on to the road, then to the inn. For what is the
inn, my boys, but the very focus and acme to which all gather, and from
which all radiate? Come in--come in."
"I wish to push on," said Urith.
"How can you without my cob?" asked Anthony roughly. "I have said--she
baits here. You, also--you must be perishing for food. We all are; have
been mum all the way home--no fun, no talking. So, come in."
"That is right--urge her, young man, to follow the advice of age and
experience," shouted Mr. Gibbs.
Then he began to sing:
Come my lads, let us be jolly,
Drive away dull melancholy,
For to grieve it is a folly
When we're met together.
So, my friends, let us agree,
Always keep good company,
Why should we not merry, merry be
When we're met together?
He brandished his tobacco-pipe over his head, in so doing striking his
wig with the stem, and at once breaking the latter, and thrusting the
wig over his ear, and then dived into the alehouse again. He was half
tipsy.
"You are right," said Elizabeth to Urith. "You must go on. Your mother
is anxious, probably in a state of serious alarm."
"My uncle's horse is in the stable, I doubt not," answered Urith, "and
as he will not be disposed to leave till he be unfit to accompany me, I
will borrow the horse, and send it back by a servant."
"I will accompany you," said Elizabeth, "and the serving man that brings
back the horse can accompany me. The distance is inconsiderable, yet you
must not at night travel it alone. Fox and Julian have, I see, turned
their horses' heads homewards without bidding us a farewell. I cannot
stay outside whilst Anthony is within, and I do not care to enter when
men are drinking."
"Your brother will hardly leave you alone outside."
"My brother will probably forget all about me when he gets with Mr.
Gibbs and others who can sing a good song and tell a merry tale."
She said this without any reproach in her tone. She was so accustomed to
be neglected, forgotten, to find herself thrust aside by her brother,
that she no longer felt unhappy about it; she accepted it as her due.
Urith sent a stable-boy for Mr. Gibbs' horse, and having mounted it,
gratefully accepted Bessie Cleverdon's company for the ride of three
miles to Willsworthy.
Urith knew Bessie very little. Old Mr. Cleverdon did not care that his
children should associate with the Malvines. His bitterness against the
father, Richard, overflowed all his belongings--wife and child and
estate; but he published no reasons for his dislike to association with
the owners of Willsworthy, who, moreover, on account of their poverty,
kept to themselves. The Cleverdons mixed with those who were in
prosperous circumstances, and kept themselves, or were kept, aloof from
those on whom Fortune turned her back. Mrs. Malvine had for some time
been a woman in failing health, and, having no neighbours, Urith had
grown up accustomed to be solitary, and not to know the value of the
friendship, or at least the companionship, of girls of her own age and
rank. She was too proud to associate, like her Uncle Solomon, with those
of a lower grade, and she had not the opportunity of forming
acquaintanceship of those fitted to be her comrades.
As Urith rode beside Bessie, her heart stirred with a sensation of
pleasure strange to her. There was a kindness, a sympathy in the manner
of Elizabeth Cleverdon that found a way at once to Urith's heart, and
she warmed to her and shook off reserve. And Elizabeth on her side was
touched by the simplicity, the loneliness of the girl's mind, and when
they reached the entrance gates to Willsworthy she held out her hand to
Urith, and said:
"This must be the beginning of our friendship. I do not know how it is
that we have not met before, or rather, have not met to make
acquaintance. Promise me that you will not let this be the beginning and
the ending of a friendship."
"That lies with you," said Urith, with timidity. It was to her too
surprising a glimpse into happiness for her to trust its reality.
"If it lies with me," said Elizabeth, "then you may be assured it will
be warm and fast; expect to see me again soon. I will come over and
visit you. But here--let us not part thus. Give me a kiss and take
mine."
The girls drew their horses alongside each other and kissed. The tears
came into Urith's eyes at this offered and given pledge of kindness. It
was to her a wholly new experience, and was to her of inexpressible
value.
Then Urith called a serving man, alighted, and delivered her horse up to
him that he might attend Bessie Cleverdon on her way back to the Hare
and Hounds, and leave it there for her uncle when it pleased Mr. Solomon
Gibbs to return home.
Bessie found that her brother was angry and offended when he came out of
the alehouse and discovered that Urith had departed without a word; he
had felt himself obliged to wait for his sister, because it would not be
seemly to allow her to ride home in the dark alone; but he vented his
ill-humour on her when she appeared. Bessie bore his reproaches with
patience. She was accustomed to be found fault with by her father, and
less frequently, nevertheless sometimes, and always unreasonably, by her
brother.
"I've promised the ostler a shilling to attend you to Hall," said
Anthony. "There is Fox returned, and there is Solomon Gibbs here, and--I
don't feel inclined to go home."
"Father will be ill-pleased at your remaining away so long,"
remonstrated Bessie.
"Father has seen so little of me to-day that another hour's absence
won't signify. The weather is going to change--we shall have a
thunderstorm. Get home as fast as you can. Here, Samuel, attend my
sister."
Then Anthony returned to the alehouse.
At Willsworthy, Urith had stood for a moment in the porch in hesitation.
She knew that she deserved to be reproached for her conduct, and she
expected it. Her mother was not a person to spare words. She was
repentant, and yet was certain that directly her mother addressed her
with rebuke her spirit would rise up in revolt.
To her surprise, when she did enter her mother's room, Mrs. Malvine
said no more than this, "Oh, Urith! what a many hours you have been
absent. But, my child, what is that? You have gloves hanging to your
dress."
Urith stooped and looked. It was as her mother had said--the gloves of
Julian Crymes had not fallen to the ground, they had been caught by the
tags in the gown of Urith, and hung there. She disengaged them, and held
them in her hand. She had unwittingly taken up the gage.