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She allowed the pretty trifles of agricultural domesticity to glide by her as sorry details, and had it not been for the children Darton's house would have seemed but little brighter than it had been before.
And at moments the young girl would have persuaded herself that Darton's looks at her sister-in-law were entirely the fruit of the clothes query. But surely at other times a more extensive range of speculation and sentiment was expressed by her lover's eye than that which the changed dress would account for. Sally's independence made her one of the least jealous of women.
There was another pause; the proverbial dilatoriness of watched pots was never more clearly exemplified. Helena's face was of that sort which seems to ask for assistance without the owner's knowledge the very antipodes of Sally's, which was self-reliance expressed. Darton's eyes travelled from the kettle to Helena's face, then back to the kettle, then to the face for rather a longer time.
Philip Hall's wife, in spite of this interruption to her first rencounter, seemed scarcely so much affected by it as to feel any one's presence in addition to Mr. Darton's. However, arousing herself by a quick reflection, she threw a sudden critical glance of her sad eyes upon Mrs. Hall; and, apparently finding her satisfactory, advanced to her in a meek initiative.
He was accompanied half-way by Sally and his mother to the 'White Horse, at Chalk Newton where he was handed over to Darton's bailiff in a shining spring-cart, who met them there. The thoughtful taciturnity into which Darton had latterly fallen was quite dissipated by the presence of this boy. When the Christmas holidays came it was arranged that he should spend them with his mother.
Moreover, she had a pre-eminent qualification for Darton's household; no other woman could make so desirable a mother to her brother's two children and Darton's one as Sally while Darton, now that Helena had gone, was a more promising husband for Sally than he had ever been when liable to reminders from an uncured sentimental wound.
"Quietly now," the woman's voice cautioned. "Ye said it was a boy?" This was Mr. Darton's voice, unmistakable now. "I didn't say," the woman's whisper floated down to me as a door creaked open. "But it is a girl. You must be ver " Her words were cut off by the report of a door banging shut. There was the sibilant sound of a breath being drawn in and, at the same moment, Mr. Darton's voice again.
No sooner had I entered than I saw that this lady had taken temporary shelter here and found I was intruding. 'She is my daughter-in-law, said Mrs. Hall calmly. 'My son, too, is in the house, but he has gone to bed unwell. Sally had stood staring wonderingly at the scene until this moment, hardly recognizing Darton's shake of the hand.
A short time after the interview Darton was united to Helena at a simple matter-of fact wedding; and she and her little girl joined the boy who had already grown to look on Darton's house as home. For some months the farmer experienced an unprecedented happiness and satisfaction. There had been a flaw in his life, and it was as neatly mended as was humanly possible.
As I recall it in late years, I often wonder how my father could have mistaken the lying, rancorous woman of Con Darton's description for this stern-lipped creature, who had gone by wordlessly, shutting the door gently behind her, a door that she was never to re-open. I turned to find myself alone in the room. Mr. Darton had disappeared as unexpectedly but more quietly than he had entered.
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