`Ah! well,' returned he with a dubious, sidelong glance at my splashed, grey trousers and rough P jacket. `But,' he added, encouragingly, `there's many a fine lady like that `at has kinsfolks poorer nor what you are, sir, I should think.'
`No doubt,--and there's many a fine gentleman would esteem himself vastly honoured to be able to claim kindred with the lady you mention.'
He now cunningly glanced at my face. `Perhaps, sir, you mean to--'
I guessed what was coming, and checked the impertinent conjecture with,--`Perhaps you'll be so good as to be quiet a moment. I'm busy.
`Busy, sir?'
`Yes, in my mind, and don't want to have my cogitations disturbed.'
`Indeed, sir!'
You will see that my disappointment had not very greatly affected me, or I should not have been able so quietly to bear with the fellow's impertinence. The fact is I thought it as well--nay better, all things considered, that I should not see her to-day,--that I should have time to compose my mind for the interview--to prepare it for a heavier disappointment, after the intoxicating delight experienced by this sudden removal of my former apprehensions; not to mention that, after travelling a night and a day without intermission, and rushing in hot haste through six miles of new-fallen snow, I could not possibly be in a very presentable condition.
At M-- I had time before the coach started to replenish my forces with a hearty breakfast, and to obtain the refreshment of my usual morning's ablutions, and the amelioration of some slight change in my toilet,--and also to dispatch a short note to my mother (excellent son that I was) to assure her that I was still in existence and to excuse my nonappearance at the expected time. It was a long journey to Staningley for those slow travelling days; but I did not deny myself needful refreshment on the road, nor even a night's rest at a way-side inn; choosing rather to brook a little delay than to present myself worn, wild, and weatherbeaten before my mistress and her aunt, who would be astonished enough to see me without that. Next morning, therefore, I not only fortified myself with as substantial a breakfast as my excited feelings would allow me to swallow, but I bestowed a little more than usual time and care upon my toilet; and, furnished with a change of linen from my small carpet-bag, well brushed clothes, well polished boots, and neat new gloves,--I mounted `the Lightning,' and resumed my journey. I had nearly two stages yet before me, but the coach, I was informed, passed through the neighbourhood of Staningley, and, having desired to be set down as near the Hall as possible, I had nothing to do but to sit with folded arms and speculate upon the coming hour.
It was a clear, frosty morning. The very fact of sitting exalted aloft, surveying the snowy landscape and sweet, sunny sky, inhaling the pure, bracing air, and crunching away over the crisp, frozen snow, was exhilarating enough in itself, but add to this the idea of to what goal I was hastening, and whom I expected to meet, and you may have some faint conception of my frame of mind at the time--only a faint one though, for my heart swelled with unspeakable delight, and my spirits rose almost to madness--in spite of my prudent endeavours to bind them down to a reasonable platitude' by thinking of the undeniable difference between Helen's rank and mine; of all that she had passed through since our parting; of her long, unbroken silence; and, above all, of her cool, cautious aunt, whose counsels she would doubtless be careful not to slight again. These considerations made my heart flutter with anxiety, and my chest heave with impatience to get the crisis over, but they could not dim her image in my mind, or mar the vivid recollection of what had been said and felt between us--or destroy the keen anticipation of what was to be--in fact, I could not realize their terrors now. Towards the close of the journey, however, a couple of my fellow passengers kindly came to my assistance, and brought me low enough.
`Fine land this,' said one of them, pointing with his umbrella to the wide fields on the right, conspicuous for their compact hedgerows, deep, well-cut ditches, and fine timber-trees, growing sometimes on the borders, sometimes in the midst of the enclosure;--`very fine land, if you saw it in the summer or spring.'
`Ay,' responded the others gruff elderly man, with a drab great coat buttoned up to the chin and a cotton umbrella between his knees. `It's old Maxwell's I suppose.'