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Further and further he had been drawn, till the fire of his blood made him fancy that he was proceeding voluntarily. To Mary Casely the whole affair seemed quite natural. She knew nothing about the pitiful stories of village maidens which make so much of the stock of fiction. She had never read a story, so she fancied that her secret meetings were part of the fixed order of life.
The sea's come on very coarse, and the young Squire's boat's gettin' badly used out there, about a mile to the east'ard." "Who's in her?" "The young Squire and his lass." "I'll be out directly. Has he ever made the landin' before?" "Yes, but Tom's Harry was always with him." When Casely stepped to the cliff edge, he saw that matters were a little awkward.
The unfortunate had not a word to say even against his grandfather's brutal insolence. He went, and passed the night in much the same way as did Casely, save that where Casely's pride was still stubborn, Ellington's pride was broken. When the spring came there were gay doings at the Hall. Old Mr. Ellington had taken a sudden turn, and the housekeeper was near bidding good-bye to her reason.
The reader will see that these rustics had not attained that quaint sententious wisdom proper to the rustics of fiction. In their ungrammatical way they talked much like human beings. When Mr. Ellington turned once more to the sea, after Mary Casely had passed out of sight, the look of things had somehow altered in his eyes.
You'd better get away out of my sight." Then Mr. Casely tramped towards the wicket, and went home. He sat long into the night, and when he went to bed he flung himself on the coverlid with his clothes on. Towards morning he said aloud "I'm glad he didn't think to offer me money. If he had, I would have pulled his windpipe out." The young gentleman thus alluded to by Mr.
"Who's that?" Another made answer within Casely's hearing "Oh, it's the young Squire's lass. She's a daughter of some big man away down South. They're to be married come the spring o' the year." Casely watched the graceful young lady over the crest of the next rise, then turned homeward and sat down silent as usual.
He carried out his instruction as well as he knew how. The boat came dashingly in, flinging the spray gallantly aside as she ducked and plunged in the short sea. Casely saw that Ellington was going wrong. For an instant he had an ungenerous thought. "Should I save him?"
The summer passed into autumn, and late November came. Such an affair as that of Mary Casely and the young Squire could not be long kept out of the reach of acrid village gossip. Once or twice, as young Ellington walked out of church from the pew by the chancel, he fancied he saw the gardeners and farm-people looking at him with intelligence, and he felt something catching at his throat.
Once a neighbour stepped in unawares, and found the strong man stretched with his face on the settle, and sobbing hard; but he sat up when he found he was not alone, spoke an oath or two, and was ready for everyday chat. In the autumn Casely happened to be out on the green, watching the women spreading the nets to dry.
"I never knew what pride meant; but if I walk with a lad I like him to be bonny, and I want to see him not look like a countryman altogether. Bob isn't bonny." "Ay, well, hinny, if you want fine clothes, I doubt you'll get nobody but the young squire." This Mr. Casely said with a slow smile, and Mary thought suddenly, "Next Thursday afternoon."
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