"It is no use, sir," he said. "There are sixteen of us on the Plain,

and the whole country is reared."

"Let her finish her sleep!" he implored in a whisper of the men as

they gathered round. When they saw where she lay, which they had not done till then, they

showed no objection, and stood watching her, as still as the pillars

around. He went to the stone and bent over her, holding one poor

little hand; her breathing now was quick and small, like that of a

lesser creature than a woman. All waited in the growing light, their

faces and hands as if they were silvered, the remainder of their

figures dark, the stones glistening green-gray, the Plain still a

Advertisement..

mass of shade. Soon the light was strong, and a ray shone upon her

unconscious form, peering under her eyelids and waking her.

"What is it, Angel?" she said, starting up. "Have they come for me?"

"Yes, dearest," he said. "They have come."

"It is as it should be," she murmured. "Angel, I am almost glad--yes,

glad! This happiness could not have lasted. It was too much. I

have had enough; and now I shall not live for you to despise me!"

She stood up, shook herself, and went forward, neither of the men

having moved. "I am ready," she said quietly.

LIX

The city of Wintoncester, that fine old city, aforetime capital

of Wessex, lay amidst its convex and concave downlands in all the

brightness and warmth of a July morning. The gabled brick, tile, and

freestone houses had almost dried off for the season their integument

of lichen, the streams in the meadows were low, and in the sloping

High Street, from the West Gateway to the mediæval cross, and from

the mediæval cross to the bridge, that leisurely dusting and sweeping

was in progress which usually ushers in an old-fashioned market-day.

From the western gate aforesaid the highway, as every Wintoncestrian

knows, ascends a long and regular incline of the exact length of a

measured mile, leaving the houses gradually behind. Up this road

from the precincts of the city two persons were walking rapidly,

as if unconscious of the trying ascent--unconscious through

preoccupation and not through buoyancy. They had emerged upon this

road through a narrow, barred wicket in a high wall a little lower

down. They seemed anxious to get out of the sight of the houses and

of their kind, and this road appeared to offer the quickest means

of doing so. Though they were young, they walked with bowed heads,

which gait of grief the sun's rays smiled on pitilessly.




Most Popular