Country life -- England -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Love stories
Lena meanwhile was sitting on a grave in the churchyard, her elbows on
her knees, her chin in her hands, looking out towards the Surrey hills,
and she, too, was thinking of Tom Carringford and Margaret. She had been
uneasy from the moment they had met each other on the embankment. She
had seen Margaret's beauty and Tom's recognition of it, and they were
something like each other--well-grown and healthy, a boy and girl that
matched. She was not violently in love with Tom herself, but she simply
couldn't bear that he should escape her, and on one pretext or another
she brought him perpetually to her side. It was easy enough, for they
had known each other since they were born, and Mrs. Lakeman had helped
him with the house in Stratton Street when he was left alone in it.
Since his father's death and his sister's marriage she had taken the
place of a near relation. He knew that Lena liked him, but it never
occurred to him that her feeling was anything more--she always squirmed
and looked into people's eyes and called them "dear"; if it had occurred
to him he would probably have proposed on the spot, for there was no
particular reason why he should not marry her, except that she was a
little too clinging, and too fond of darkened rooms and limp clothes. He
liked fresh air and a straightforwardness he could understand: there
were many praiseworthy elementary qualities in Tom Carringford.
"He'll be quite happy with us in Scotland," Lena said to herself. "We'll
sit by the streams or walk in the woods all day; he'll feel that we
belong to each other and tell me he loves me"--for she was cloying even
in her secret thoughts--"I think we must be married this autumn, then
mother will be free. I wonder if mother will marry Dawson Farley." Lena
was sharp enough, and was quite aware of the actor's vague intentions,
little as he imagined it. She looked up at the wood--the crown--in the
near distance, and then at the fields that led to the farm. That must be
Margaret's wood, she thought, for Tom, who was frankness itself, had
told the Lakemans of his visit to Chidhurst and his walk with Margaret.
Lena would have gone across the fields to the farm, but Mrs. Lakeman,
who always had an eye for effect, would not hear of it.
"We will pay Mrs. Gerald Vincent a formal visit," she said, "in our best
clothes and new gloves, and drive up to the door properly."
They had hired an open fly for the two days they were going to stay.
Nothing could make it imposing--it was just a ramshackle landau, and
that was all, and the driver was the ordinary country flyman. It
happened--though this had nothing to do with the Lakemans--that he was
the same man, grown old, who twenty years ago had taken the elder
Bartons to Woodside Farm when they went to expostulate with the widow
concerning her second marriage. He thought of it to-day as he went down
the green lane and in at the farm gates, for afterwards he had come to
know with what their errand had been concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account