Elopement -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
Lawrence groaned again.
"That's right," she said; "don't suffer in silence."
It was not long now before the two men who came in the cart had
assisted Lawrence into it. At first he refused to sit down on the
feather bed. He caught a glimpse of Prudence's laughing face as she
said, "If you don't, I shall think you're ungrateful for all we've
done for you."
On this the young man sank down on the bed. "I've only been stunned,"
he said, morosely, "and you needn't make any more fuss about it."
"All right; have it your own way; but I insist on the ribs and the
collar-bones. Now I'll go on and prepare the minds of your friends."
Before anything more could be said, Miss Ffolliott pedalled away.
Leander lifted his machine into the cart, and then placed himself
between it and the feather bed. The horse started on his walk to
Savin Hill.
As he started, Lawrence raised his head and looked back to the spot
of ground where he had fallen. He saw something white lying there,
and he knew that it was Miss Ffolliott's glove.
Miss Ffolliott herself rode swiftly along the shady, solitary road.
She knew the way very well. She had ridden and driven here many times
with the man who was lying there in the farm cart. He had been in
love with her,--extravagantly, furiously, delightfully. She smiled
as she remembered. Some men could make love so much more agreeably
than others. She supposed that was a matter of temperament.
And he wasn't hurt very much, after all. And he and Caro were
"spoons" now. She smiled more broadly.
"I always suspected that Caro cared," she thought, "and I was right.
How funny it is! Well, I shall know precisely the state of the case
in three seconds after I've seen them together. And I've come now."
She seemed to slide without propulsion along the road. She whistled
two or three bars of a tune she had often whistled while she had sat
beside her mother when the latter lady had been up to her neck in
ground peat and sprudel water.
Sometimes the girl flung back her head and sniffed the air, much as a
young colt sniffs when it has just been let out into a field after a
long confinement.
But she did not relax her speed. It was not long before she turned
into a better kept road, and here she saw ahead of her, and walking
towards her, the figure of her cousin Carolyn, who began to hasten
directly.
They fell on each other's necks, after the manner of girls, and
kissed and hugged.
Then Prudence held her off, and examined her, smiling slightly all
the while.
"Lee told me you were no good any more," she said, at last.
Then Caro blushed and blushed.
"I suppose you're happy?"
"Yes."
"Of course. Well, I've been to the mud baths of Carlsbad, and I'm
not particularly happy. However, I congratulate you; and I won't
be _de trop_ any more than is absolutely necessary for the sake of
appearances."
Prudence propelled her wheel with one hand; the other arm she put
about her companion's waist, and so the two went out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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