“Now, put the umbrella back!” that lady added, in rather a shame-faced way, “and leave it all to me. And, Jane Anne, mind you practise up that thing of Arcadelt’s in time for Divine service; you seemed rather weak in it last Sunday, or perhaps you were not attending? I saw her in church. She probably gets Mr. Rivers to take her there to throw a little dust in all our eyes. I notice she never kneels or sings. It is evidently the first time she has ever been regularly to church in her life!” CHAPTER VIII Two days after this incident, of which she naturally remained unaware, Mrs. Elles was well enough to walk across three fields to meet the artist on his way back from his work. She exulted in the fact that she had become so countrified as to disdain to put on a hat even, and her red-golden hair, less elaborately arranged than it used to be, shone beautifully in the slanting light of the setting sun. She waved her hand to him as he came in sight, crying, in accents of frank camaraderie: “Have you had a good day?” “Not at all!” “He’s cross,” she thought, and as he answered her so curtly, and moreover stared at her in an oddly unconscious way, as if he were taking her in for the first time, she felt all her joyous welcome frozen on her lips and at once jumped to the conclusion that somebody had been abusing her to him. “You look at me as if you didn’t know me or like me!” she said, undiplomatically, because she felt it so acutely. “And as I happen to do both---- ” He spoke quite roughly between his teeth the justification she forced upon him. He re-adjusted the sketching bag on his shoulders with a hasty impatient movement. The bag was heavy, and it had been a very hot day. “Did any tiresome tourists come and overlook you?” she asked presently. She knew how he hated being overlooked, and even here in these wilds, periodical intrusions of the outer barbarian were possible. An encounter with an ’Arry of Leeds or Scarborough would account for any amount of ill-temper. “The Vicar came and spoke to me,” he answered her grudgingly. “Ah! Like old times,” she said. “It was I who frightened him away. Ever since the Vicaress saw you carry me home, I think she has disapproved of us both. She never came to call on me, as you said she would. I don’t want her to, I am sure, I could not return a formal call in a sailor hat, and that is all I have got.... Do you mind not walking quite so fast? It hurts my foot.” “I beg your pardon!” he said. “I keep forgetting you are an invalid still. It is most unfortunate!” Again she noticed the accents of irritation and wondered at them. He had always been so nice about her accident till now.