SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR.
When Mark awoke next morning the weather had undergone one of those
sudden and complete changes which form one of the chief attractions of
our climate; there had been a frost, and with it a thin white mist,
which threw its clinging veil over the landscape; the few trees which
were near enough to be seen were covered with a kind of thick grey
vegetation, that gave them a spectral resemblance to their summer
selves. Breakfast was early, as Mark had to be down at St. Peter's as
soon after morning chapel as possible, and he came down shivering to
find his uncle already seated. 'The dog-cart will be round in five
minutes,' said the latter gentleman, with his mouth full; 'so make the
most of your time. You'll have a cold drive. I'll take you over to the
station myself, and go on and see Ferret after.'
The too-zealous Wilcox brought the trap round. ''Ave you been round to
see about that bird next door?' Mr. Lightowler asked rather
anxiously, as the man stood by the mare's head. 'Yessir,' said Wilcox,
with a grin; 'I went and saw Mr. 'Umpage's man, and he say the old
gander was werry bad when they got 'im 'ome, but he ain't any the
worse for what he 'ad this mornin', sir; though the man, he dew say as
the gander seem a bit sorry for 'isself tew. They tough old birds 'a'
got strong 'eads, sir; _I_ knowed it 'ud do him no 'arm, bless ye!'
'Well, don't you go trying it again, Wilcox, that's all. Mind what I
say,' said Uncle Solomon, with visible relief, 'else you and me'll
'ave words and part. Let her go,' and they drove off.
He gave Mark much good advice on the way, such as wealthy uncles seem
to secrete and exude almost unconsciously, as toads yield moisture;
but Mark paid only a moderate degree of attention to it as they spun
past the low dim edges; he hardly noticed what could be seen along the
road even, which was not much--a gable-end or a haystack starting out
for an instant from the fog, or a shadowy labourer letting himself
through a gate--he was thinking of the girl whose eyes had met his the
afternoon before.
He had dreamed of her all that night--a confused ridiculous dream, but
with a charm about it which was lingering still; he thought they had
met and understood one another at once, and he had taken her to the
village church where he had first seen her, and they had a private
box, and Uncle Solomon took the chair, while old Mr. Shelford, Trixie,
and young Langton were all in the choir, which was more like an
orchestra. It was not particularly connected or reverent, but she had
not been included in the general travesty--his sleeping brain had
respected her image even in its waywardness, and presented it as vivid
and charming as in life, so that the dream with all its absurdity
seemed to have brought her nearer to him, and he could not resist the
fancy that _she_ might have some recollection of it too.
A low hum in the still air, and distant reports and choked railway
whistles told them they were near the station, but the fog had grown
so much denser that there was no other indication of it, until Mr.
Lightowler brought up sharply opposite the end of an inclined covered
staircase, which seemed to spring out of nothing and lead nowhere,
where they left the dog-cart in charge of a flyman and went up to the
platform.
There a few old gentlemen with rosy faces were stamping up and down
and slapping their chests, exchanging their 'Raw morning this, sir's,'
'Ah, it is indeed's,' with an air of good men bearing up under an
undeserved persecution.
'Sharp morning this to stand about in,' said Uncle Solomon; 'let's go
into the waiting-room, there's a fire there.' The waiting-room was the
usual drab little room, with a bottle of water and tumblers on a bare
stained table, and local advertisements on the dingy walls; the gas
was lighted, and flickered in a sickly white fishtail flame, but the
fire was blazing cheerfully, giving a sheen to the silver-grey fur of
a child in a crimson plush hat who stood before it embracing a small
round basket out of which a Skye terrier's head was peering
inquisitively.
The firelight shone, too, on the graceful form of a girl, who was
bending towards it holding out her slender hands to the blaze. Mark
scarcely needed to glance at the face she turned towards the newcomers
to recognise that fortune had allowed him one more chance: Mr.
Humpage's visitors were evidently returning to town by the same train
as himself, and the old gentleman in person was standing with his back
to them examining a time-table on the wall.
Uncle Solomon, in his relief at Wilcox's information that morning, did
not perceive any awkwardness in the encounter, but moved about and
coughed noisily, as if anxious to attract his enemy's attention. Mark
felt considerably embarrassed, dreading a scene; but he glanced as
often as he dared at the lady of his thoughts, who was drawing on her
gloves again with a dainty deliberation.
'Godpapa,' said the little girl, suddenly, 'you never told me if Frisk
had been good. Has he?'
'So good that he kept me awake thinking of him all night,' said the
old gentleman drily, without turning.
'Did he howl, godpapa? He does sometimes when he's left out in the
garden, you know.'
'He did,' said Mr. Humpage. 'Oh, yes--he howled; he's a clever dog at
that.'
'And you really _like_ him to?' said Dolly. 'Some people don't.'
'Narrow-minded of 'em, very,' growled the old gentleman.
'Isn't it?' said Dolly, innocently. 'Well, I'm glad _you_ like it,
godpapa, because now I shall bring him to see you again. When there's
a moon he can howl much louder. I'll bring him when the next moon
comes, shall I?'
'We'll see, Chuckie, we'll see. I shouldn't like to keep him sitting
up all night to howl on my account; it wouldn't be good for his
health. But the very next blue moon we have down in these parts, I'll
send up for him--I promise you that.'
Dolly was evidently about to inquire searchingly into the nature of
this local phenomenon, but before she could begin the old gentleman
turned and saw that they were not alone.
'Mornin', Mr. 'Umpage,' said Uncle Solomon, clearing his throat; and
Mark felt a pang of regret for the lost aspirate.
'Good morning to you, sir,' said the other, distantly.
The elder girl returned the bow which Mark risked, though without
giving any sign of remembrance; but Dolly remarked audibly, 'Why,
that's the old man next door that gave your goose something to make it
giddy, isn't it, godpapa?'
'I hope,' said Uncle Solomon, 'that now you've had time to think over
what 'appened yesterday afternoon, you'll see that you went too far in
using the terms that fell from you, more particularly as the bird's as
well as ever, from what I hear this morning?'
'I don't wish to reopen that affair at present,' said the other,
stiffly.
'Well, I've heard about enough of it, too; so if you'll own you used
language that was unwarrantable, I'm willing to say no more about it
for my part.'
'I've no doubt you are, Mr. Lightowler, but you must excuse me from
entering into any conversation on the subject. I can't dismiss it as
lightly as you seem to do--and, in short, I don't mean to discuss it
here, sir.'
'Very well, just as you please. I only meant to be neighbourly--but it
don't signify. I can keep myself _to_ myself as well as other parties,
I daresay.'
'Then have the goodness to do it, Mr. Lightowler. Mabel, the train is
due now. Get your wraps and things and come along.'
He walked fiercely past the indignant Uncle Solomon, followed by Mabel
and Dolly, the former of whom seemed a little ashamed of Mr. Humpage's
behaviour, for she kept her eyes lowered as she passed Mark, while
Dolly looked up at him with childish curiosity.
'Confound these old fools!' thought Mark, angrily; 'what do they want
to squabble for in this ridiculous way? Why, if they had only been on
decent terms, I might have been introduced to her--to Mabel--by this
time; we might even have travelled up to town together.'
'Regular old Tartar, that!' said his uncle, under his breath. 'I
believe he'll try and have the law of me now. Let him--_I_ don't care!
Here's your train at last. You won't be in by the time-table this
morning with all this fog about.'
Mark got into a compartment next to that in which Mr. Humpage had put
Mabel and her sister; it was as near as he dared to venture. He could
hear Mabel's clear soft voice saying the usual last words at the
carriage window, while Uncle Solomon was repeating his exhortations to
study and abstinence from any 'littery nonsense.'
Then the train, after one or two false starts on the greasy rails,
moved out, and Mark had a parting glimpse of the neighbours turning
sharply round on the platform with an elaborate affectation of being
utter strangers.
He had no paper to amuse him, for the station was not important enough
for a bookstall, and there was nothing to be seen out of the windows,
which were silvered with frozen moisture. He had the compartment to
himself, and lay back looking up rather sentimentally at the
bull's-eye, through which he heard occasional snatches of Dolly's
imperious treble.
'I know her name now,' he thought, with a quite unreasonable
joy--'Mabel. I shall remember that. I wonder if they are going all the
way to town, and if I could offer to be of any use to them at King's
Cross? At all events, I shall see her once more then.'
It was not a very long journey from Chigbourne to the terminus, but,
as will be seen hereafter, it was destined to be a land mark in the
lives of both Mark and Mabel, though the meeting he looked forward to
at the end of it never took place.