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Bathsheba said in a whisper, which she vainly endeavoured to make loud enough to reach Liddy's ears. Liddy, not knowing this, stepped down upon the swamp, saying, as she did so, "It will bear me up, I think." Bathsheba never forgot that transient little picture of Liddy crossing the swamp to her there in the morning light.
He had come to apologize and beg forgiveness of Bathsheba with some- thing like a sense of shame at his violence, having but just now learnt that she had returned only from a visit to Liddy, as he supposed, the Bath escapade being quite unknown to him. He inquired for Miss Everdene. Liddy's manner was odd, but he did not notice it.
They were more to him than sheep, and he could love them without pain, since they were not being prepared for the butcher with his abhorred knife. Liddy's love and knowledge of horses became known outside of his own little circle, and he was offered and joyfully accepted a place in the stables of a wealthy young gentleman farmer, who kept a large establishment and was a hunting man.
The maples in front of Liddy's home were just showing the first tints of autumn color when Manson returned. It had been a long three weeks of separation to her, and her first words contained a note of reproach. "You might have written me once or twice, Charlie," she said; "the days have seemed so long!"
"Do you know," said Emily, when they were alone, "it is common talk here in school that you and Charlie Manson are engaged? Oh, you need not blush so," she continued, as she saw the color rise in Liddy's face, "everybody says so and believes it, too. Shall I congratulate you?" This did not please Liddy at all.
She had contrived to fasten her hair, and I saw her touching tentatively the folds of her strange dress. And so I made her know what she had done, as gently as I might, and with all praise I stilled her dismay and shame. And last I led her, as I was determined that I would do, past Miss Liddy's dark little house and on to the home of Doctor June.
Still, it was faintly depressing that the most dignified and valuable man in the parish should withhold his eyes, and that a girl like Liddy should talk about it. So Liddy's idea was at first rather harassing than piquant. "No, I won't do that. He wouldn't see any humour in it." "He'd worry to death." said the persistent Liddy.
When the boy, with Liddy's soft hand curled confidingly around his arm, started for her home, a mile away, he was proud as a king, and far happier. And that long walk in the moonlight, while "On his arm a soft hand rested; rested light as ocean's foam," could he, or would he, ever forget it? I think not.
"You may have dreamed it, in your 'fainting' attack. But if it is true, the metal rod and the hole in the wall will show it." Eliza looked a little bit sheepish. "The hole's there all right, Miss Innes," she said. "But the bar was gone when Mary Anne and Rosie went up to pack my trunk." "That wasn't all," Liddy's voice came funereally from a corner.
But could she go on to Liddy's and leave things to take their course? No, no; anything but that. Bath- sheba was full of a stimulating turbulence, beside which caution vainly prayed for a hearing. she turned back towards the village. Her walk was slow, for she wished not to enter Weatherbury till the cottagers were in bed, and, par- ticularly, till Boldwood was secure.
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