Nevertheless, the greeting on her looks and lips was of a restrained

type, which perhaps was not unnatural. For true it was that Giles

Winterborne, well-attired and well-mannered as he was for a yeoman,

looked rough beside her. It had sometimes dimly occurred to him, in

his ruminating silence at Little Hintock, that external phenomena--such

as the lowness or height or color of a hat, the fold of a coat, the

make of a boot, or the chance attitude or occupation of a limb at the

instant of view--may have a great influence upon feminine opinion of a

man's worth--so frequently founded on non-essentials; but a certain

causticity of mental tone towards himself and the world in general had

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prevented to-day, as always, any enthusiastic action on the strength of

that reflection; and her momentary instinct of reserve at first sight

of him was the penalty he paid for his laxness.

He gave away the tree to a by-stander, as soon as he could find one who

would accept the cumbersome gift, and the twain moved on towards the

inn at which he had put up. Marty made as if to step forward for the

pleasure of being recognized by Miss Melbury; but abruptly checking

herself, she glided behind a carrier's van, saying, dryly, "No; I baint

wanted there," and critically regarded Winterborne's companion.

It would have been very difficult to describe Grace Melbury with

precision, either now or at any time. Nay, from the highest point of

view, to precisely describe a human being, the focus of a universe--how

impossible! But, apart from transcendentalism, there never probably

lived a person who was in herself more completely a reductio ad

absurdum of attempts to appraise a woman, even externally, by items of

face and figure. Speaking generally, it may be said that she was

sometimes beautiful, at other times not beautiful, according to the

state of her health and spirits.

In simple corporeal presentment she was of a fair and clear complexion,

rather pale than pink, slim in build and elastic in movement. Her look

expressed a tendency to wait for others' thoughts before uttering her

own; possibly also to wait for others' deeds before her own doing. In

her small, delicate mouth, which had perhaps hardly settled down to its

matured curves, there was a gentleness that might hinder sufficient

self-assertion for her own good. She had well-formed eyebrows which,

had her portrait been painted, would probably have been done in Prout's

or Vandyke brown.

There was nothing remarkable in her dress just now, beyond a natural

fitness and a style that was recent for the streets of Sherton. But,

indeed, had it been the reverse, and quite striking, it would have

meant just as little. For there can be hardly anything less connected

with a woman's personality than drapery which she has neither designed,

manufactured, cut, sewed, or even seen, except by a glance of approval

when told that such and such a shape and color must be had because it

has been decided by others as imperative at that particular time.




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