Should she retreat to the other side? It would look like flight; and the man might follow. To escape along the long path which led towards the Brow plantation, with such a pursuer, seemed worse than to stay where she was. Moreover, she would then be out of Mr. Trevelyan's reach; and here, at any moment, he might appear.
[CHAPTER V.]
PROTECTOR AND PROTECTED.
"You can't do some things with impunity."
"The Ring and the Book."
THESE thoughts flashed through Jean's mind, as she stood resolutely still, trying to be unconscious of the sense of dread which drove all colour from her face. It was a sensation no less unpleasant than new. Up to this date, Jean could almost have said with the infant Nelson, "What is fear? I never saw it." Something of danger she had known; and she knew what it was to meet danger with an undaunted spirit: but actual womanly terror had not assailed her.
She might have met a dozen men in the loneliest lanes of Dulveriford, one after another, and have cared little for it; greeting each in succession with a pleasant word. But this man—! Jean could not tell what it was about him which frightened her. She was only, all at once, conscious of her own girlish helplessness, as she never had been before.
Still, whatever Jean felt, she would not be soon overcome. As he stood and stared, she said, "Will you let me pass, if you please?"
He half moved as if to comply; then, changing his mind, he grasped either parapet of the narrow bridge with a large hand.
"Perhaps you have something that you wish to say to me. What is it?" asked Jean.
The very effort to seem brave made her inwardly braver.