When Melbury stepped up close to the shelter, he for the first time

perceived that the doctor was present, and warmly appreciated

Fitzpiers's invitation to sit down on the log beside him.

"Bless my heart, who would have thought of finding you here," he said,

obviously much pleased at the circumstance. "I wonder now if my

daughter knows you are so nigh at hand. I don't expect she do."

He looked out towards the gig wherein Grace sat, her face still turned

in the opposite direction. "She doesn't see us. Well, never mind: let

her be."

Grace was indeed quite unconscious of Fitzpiers's propinquity. She was

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thinking of something which had little connection with the scene before

her--thinking of her friend, lost as soon as found, Mrs. Charmond; of

her capricious conduct, and of the contrasting scenes she was possibly

enjoying at that very moment in other climes, to which Grace herself

had hoped to be introduced by her friend's means. She wondered if this

patronizing lady would return to Hintock during the summer, and whether

the acquaintance which had been nipped on the last occasion of her

residence there would develop on the next.

Melbury told ancient timber-stories as he sat, relating them directly

to Fitzpiers, and obliquely to the men, who had heard them often

before. Marty, who poured out tea, was just saying, "I think I'll take

out a cup to Miss Grace," when they heard a clashing of the

gig-harness, and turning round Melbury saw that the horse had become

restless, and was jerking about the vehicle in a way which alarmed its

occupant, though she refrained from screaming. Melbury jumped up

immediately, but not more quickly than Fitzpiers; and while her father

ran to the horse's head and speedily began to control him, Fitzpiers

was alongside the gig assisting Grace to descend. Her surprise at his

appearance was so great that, far from making a calm and independent

descent, she was very nearly lifted down in his arms. He relinquished

her when she touched ground, and hoped she was not frightened.

"Oh no, not much," she managed to say. "There was no danger--unless he

had run under the trees where the boughs are low enough to hit my head."

"Which was by no means an impossibility, and justifies any amount of

alarm."

He referred to what he thought he saw written in her face, and she

could not tell him that this had little to do with the horse, but much

with himself. His contiguity had, in fact, the same effect upon her as

on those former occasions when he had come closer to her than

usual--that of producing in her an unaccountable tendency to

tearfulness. Melbury soon put the horse to rights, and seeing that

Grace was safe, turned again to the work-people. His daughter's

nervous distress had passed off in a few moments, and she said quite

gayly to Fitzpiers as she walked with him towards the group, "There's

destiny in it, you see. I was doomed to join in your picnic, although

I did not intend to do so."




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