'Leave yo' sheep, an'
Leave yo' lamb, an'
Leave yo' ewe, an'
Leave yo' ram, an'
Rise up, shepherd, and foller!'
I asked her to sing it over again. I had forgotten all about the time
and the drive home and the beastly weather. Luckily I happened to
look at my watch. It was nearly six o'clock!
'We've got to look sharp,' I said, 'if we want any dinner at the
hotel.'
Look sharp, indeed! The woman at the inn must have been mad or drunk
when she told us that the low road home was only two miles longer than
the way we came. We may have missed the right turning, for Miss
Virginia was talking and laughing at such a rate when we began the
drive, that I confess I hadn't much attention to spare. We gradually
emerged from the valley where the village lay, and were soon on the
open moor and fairly lost on it before you could say Jack Robinson.
I never saw such a dismal, howling, God-forsaken country, without a
house or a hut or so much as a heap of stones to mark the way,--a
wilderness of stubby heath and endless, endless roads, crossing and
recrossing in a way that is simply maddening and perfectly senseless,
for they lead to nowhere. We were three mortal hours crawling along on
those confounded roads. It rained, of course, and a wind got up, and
at the end of that time we were apparently no nearer Grey Tor than
when we left Widdington.
Miss Virginia kept up very pluckily for a long time, but she was dead
tired and very cold and became more and more silent. It was about the
most uncomfortable predicament I ever was in,--and with a girl on my
hands, too, a thing I have hitherto always managed to avoid.
And then a thing happened that really I can't account for, and yet I
suppose it has changed the whole affair, as far as I am concerned. I
feel a perfect beast whenever I think of it, and I hope to goodness
Miss Virginia knows nothing about it. We had come to an interminable
hill, and I had been walking for about half an hour. Miss Virginia was
totally silent now, and suddenly I saw that the reins had slipped from
her hands. She was actually asleep, huddled up in my coat against the
back of the chaise. It was beginning to rain again, and the incline
being very gentle at that point, I felt I had to get in and hold an
umbrella over the girl. I did, and a sudden jerk of the wheels sent
her almost into my arms without waking her. Her head was on my
shoulder, her cheek so close to mine. Of course I have heard fellows
talk about kissing: I have always thought it a disgusting habit
myself, and discouraged it, even in near relations. But now--now it
seemed suddenly different--she seemed meant to be kissed--and by
me--and well, I kissed her--that's the naked truth, and the moment I
had done it I would have given worlds not to have done it, or else to
have the right to do it again. A man is a man firstly, I suppose; but
secondly, at least, he ought to be a gentleman. That's the thought
that has been spinning in my head all night. Does Virginia suspect? I
hope not--and yet I don't know.
We got home, of course, all right in the end, for the hotel turned up
quite unexpectedly round a corner, with all the lights shining out
across the moor.
_N.B._--There has been the devil to pay with the motor and the old
women.