Then she called in reply; and she was further relieved to find it difficult to make them hear what she said.
“Have you ever seen a glow-worm?” Mrs. Brent’s voice came faintly over the Pool. “Come round and look at this one I’ve found.”
Eileen turned away from Morchard and made her way round the water’s edge to where the two women were standing. Morchard followed her sullenly, his anger at the interruption being evident, though he was doing his best to conceal it.
But when Mrs. Brent led them back into the spinney and tried to point out the glow-worm, it had vanished.
“That’s a pity,” she said, glancing side-long at Morchard as she spoke. “I really thought I had it and could pick it up again easily enough.”
She poked about for a moment or two among the grass at the edge of the little wood.
“No, I’m afraid it’s escaped. Creatures do get away, unless one keeps an eye on them. And it was such a pretty little thing, too.”
This time her face was in the moonlight, and there was no mistaking the mockery in her expression as she turned to Morchard.
“Well, my headache’s a little better. Shall we go back to the house? These wood-paths won’t let us walk four abreast, I’m afraid. Mr. Morchard, you and Mrs. Tuxford had better go first.”
She stood aside to let them pass. Then, before following them, she whispered a few words to Eileen. The girl nodded and they went up the path in the track of Morchard and his companion. As they came into the gardens, Mrs. Brent noticed Wraxall and old Dangerfield in one of the alleys. The American was talking earnestly, while his host listened to him with his usual polite aloofness. Again Mrs. Brent’s face betrayed a flash of mockery; but she made no remark to the girl at her side, and together they passed on towards the house.