“Ha, ha! what a jealous master,” she said; but she put her arm into his, saying with a courtesy, “Thank you, Master Oakshott, lords must be obeyed. I should have been still buried in the old coach but for you.”
Peregrine fell back to Anne. “That blaze is at St. Helen’s,” he began. “That—what! will you not wait a moment?”
“No, no! They will want to be going home.”
“And have you forgotten that it is only just over Midsummer? This is the week of my third seventh—the moment for change. O Anne! make it a change for the better. Say the word, and the die will be cast. All is ready! Come!”
He tried to take her hand, but the vehemence of his words, spoken under his breath, terrified her, and with a hasty “No, no! you know not what you talk of,” she hastened after her friends, and was glad to find herself in the safe haven of the interior of the coach.
Ere long they drove down the hill, and at the place of parting were set down, the last words in Anne’s ears being Mrs. Archfield’s injunctions not to forget the orange flower-water at the sign of the Flower Pot, drowning Lucy’s tearful farewells.
As they walked away in the moonlight a figure was seen in the distance.
“Is that Peregrine Oakshott?” asked the Doctor. “That young man is in a desperate mood, ready to put a quarrel on any one. I hope no harm will come of it.”
CHAPTER XIV
Gathering Mouse-Ear
“I heard the groans, I marked the tears,
I saw the wound his bosom bore.”SCOTT.