"Would you ride if I got you one? Why haven't you used my mare? I did not know you could ride."
"Do you think now that Bob would have let me lay a finger on your darling Sheba?"
Anstice laughed at the very idea.
"No—I love walking, and enjoy the Fells at any time. I am only too glad of any excuse to get up amongst them. You will be busy with your ploughing. I shall be home for tea, perhaps long before."
Justin came in for a hurried lunch; he would not allow to himself how much he missed Anstice, and what a blank there was in the house when she was out of it. He went out to his ploughing again in the afternoon, but came in before dusk to inquire if Anstice were home. A thick mist and fine drizzling rain was already obscuring the Fells from view. He paced up and down the hall uneasily, then called to Brenda. The children were all making a great deal of noise in the nursery, so she did not come at once. He spoke to her very sharply.
"Why don't you come when you are called? Is your mistress accustomed to the Fells? Can she find her way about? She is not back yet, and there's a thick mist coming on. Is she out as late as this generally?"
"Maybe she's dropped in to Hockerdale. 'Tis on the way to the Nixons. She's always in by dusk. But 'tis a goodish step from Rutherswater."
An anxious look came into Brenda's face. Justin waited for twenty minutes longer, then he went off to the farm, saddled his mare and set off up into the Fells. He carried an electric torch with him and flashed it here and there in the hope of attracting attention. The mist grew thicker, until at last, even he found it difficult to follow the track. But he managed to find Hockerdale; there, the James' were sitting down to tea. The farmer sprang to his feet.
"The missus out on the Fells such an afternoon like this! May God save her! She'll never find her way. I met her this marnin' an' warned her not to kaap out an' about too lang."
"Have you a lantern, man? Come on with me. We must find her. I think I'll put up my mare here and go on foot. She's not good at finding her way in a mist."