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The grassy country round about wore a fresher green than it was wont to show; the very river, so foul in reality with the refuse of manufactures, gleamed like a pure current. Dagworthy's eyes fixed themselves on the horizon, and grew wide with the sense of things half understood. The dog had left him and was gone round into the quarry. A bark came from below.
He had called thus early, on his way to the mill, to inquire for Mr. Cartwright's present address having occasion to communicate with him on business matters. The room was so small that Emily had a difficulty in reaching Mrs. Cartwright to shake hands with her, owing to Dagworthy's almost blocking the only available way round the table.
It was only yesterday I met him over there by the mill, Dagworthy's mill stood at one end of the cattle-market, 'and you can't think the impudent way he talked. And, oh, how did he know that you were going to give me lessons? 'I can't say. 'Well, he did know, somehow; I was astonished. Perhaps your father told him? 'That is not very likely. 'Well, he knew. I wonder who he'll marry next.
She looked about her with a hasty fear, then resumed her walk to the upper part of the Heath. Beaching the smooth sward, she made straight across it for Dagworthy's house. Crossing the garden, she was just at the front door, when it was opened, and by Dagworthy himself. His eyes fell before her. 'Will you come this way? he said, indistinctly.
Outwardly it was as commonplace a story as could be told; even the accession of interest which would have come of Dagworthy's cruelty was due to the imagination of Dunfield gossips. Richard was miserable enough in his home, and frequently bad-tempered, but his wife had nothing worse from him than an angry word now and then.
The sense of being passionately sought cannot but enhance a woman's dignity in her own eyes, and Emily was not without perception of the features in Dagworthy's character which made him anything but a lover to be contemned. She dreaded him, and could not turn away as from one who tormented her out of mere ill-breeding.
Baxendale was certainly doing more in the way of gossiping conjecture than perhaps she had ever done before; the occasion excited her, and that coincidence of Dagworthy's purchase, together with his departure this very day, struck her with a force which unsettled her usual balance of thought.
'But this can be either confirmed or refuted speedily, he exclaimed. 'Can you not make inquiries of this Mr. Dagworthy's friends? If they know nothing yet, they will soon hear from him. 'Yes, I can make such inquiries. But he has a peculiar reputation in Dunfield; I think he scarcely has an intimate friend. 'Well, there is, at all events, Emily herself.
This was not yielding on Dagworthy's part; it merely occurred to him as a way of protecting himself if there should be future need. Hood was standing with bent head; he seemed unable either to speak or to depart. 'You may go, Dagworthy said. 'Sir, I may refer to you? asked the wretched man, roused by the bidding. 'No, I think not, was the calm reply.
In practical affairs he was shrewd and active; he never as poor Hood might have testified paid a man in his employ a penny more than there was need, and fell far short of the departed Dagworthy's generosity; to be at his mercy in a pecuniary transaction was to expect and to receive none.
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