“In a way it was important,” Jasper agreed.
CHAPTER XXIV
A STOLEN EXCURSION
Dusk had begum to fall, and Evelyn, returning from Netherdale village, stopped at the garden gate. Dark came early, Mrs. Haigh was not at home, and the evening would be long. In winter the evenings were intolerably long, and Evelyn rather moodily looked about.
A half-moon rose behind the trees and the wind had dropped. The sheep knew the night would be fine and went up the hill to pastures by the limestone crags. On the long, dark slopes their faint bleating was musical. Down the dale, where all was indistinct, a farm dog barked.
The silver-firs about the house were sharp, black spires, but the moon touched their tops and the needles reflected the light. Evelyn smelt resin, and thyme in a plot across the hedge. Sometimes, when Kit was with her, she had sensed the beauty of the quiet dale, but Kit was gone and all was flat.
Evelyn knew her beauty. She wanted excitement and admiration; in fact, she wanted to try her power. Yet when she married Kit she must, perhaps for long, be resigned to sober economy, and rather give than get. Evelyn was not generous, and she vaguely knew she had not much to give.
Mrs. Haigh was poor, and although at Netherdale she was important, she owed much to Mrs. Carson’s friendship and, so to speak, shone in the other’s reflected light. Mrs. Carson, however, forced one to pay for her favors. Her rewards were not very liberal, but her punishments were stern.
There was the puzzle, for although Mrs. Carson did not approve of Kit, Mrs. Haigh had been his friend and sometimes his resolute defender. Recently Evelyn had begun to remark a change. Mrs. Haigh did not talk much about Kit, and when she did talk she was apologetic. Then it looked as if she began to cultivate Harry Ledward; at all events, she was willing for him to cultivate Evelyn.
On the whole, Evelyn liked Harry, and she was annoyed by Kit’s carelessness. Jasper Carson was his uncle, and his duty was to push his nephew ahead, but Kit had antagonized the old fellow. Then Kit had given up a good post in Canada. His letter was vague, but Evelyn was persuaded he had allowed a rash impulse to carry him away. All the same, to brood about it would not help, and she opened the gate.
In the path she stopped. An engine throbbed, a bright beam sped along the hedge, and a car rolled up to the gate. Ledward jumped down and pulled off his thick gloves.