Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/368

358 defer my ramble, or confine myself for that day to the park and gardens—or if the proposed excursion was a matter of importance, such as a visit to the sick or afflicted, I would take Rachel with me, and then I was never molested.

But one mild, sunshiny day, early in November, I had ventured forth alone, to visit the village school and a few of the poor tenants, and on my return, I was alarmed at the clatter of a horse's feet behind me approaching at a rapid, steady trot. There was no stile or gap at hand, by which I could escape into the fields: so I walked quietly on, saying to myself—

"It may not be he after all; and if it is, and if he do annoy me—it shall be for the last time—I am determined, if there be power in words and looks against cool impudence and mawkish sentimentality so inexhaustible as his."

The horse soon overtook me, and was reined up close beside me. It was Mr. Hargrave. He greeted me with a smile intended to be soft and melancholy, but his triumphant satisfaction at