After that all was bustle and confusion—servants crowding to say good-bye, villagers bobbing farewell curtseys at their doors, elaborate regrets and hopes for a speedy return from acquaintances at the little station, tears from Mrs Thornton, and a last glimpse of Victor’s tall figure standing motionless on the platform; then they were off, and Jack tactfully busied himself behind his newspaper until the first painful moments were past.
When he ventured to lower the screen, both girls were perfectly composed and dry-eyed, gazing out of their respective windows. His eyes turned from Ruth to dwell upon Mollie at the further end of the carriage. The fashionable young woman had disappeared, and he saw again the simple girl in shabby serge coat and close-fitting hat with whom he had travelled weeks before, yet there was a difference which his fastidious eyes were quick to note, a dainty precision in the way the clothes were worn, a perfection of detail, a neatness of coiffure.
Mollie was too clever and adaptive to have missed the lessons of the last few weeks, and the change of expression was even more marked. The audacious school-girl had disappeared, and in her place sat a woman, with a grave, set face, and eyes that stared into space, seeing things that were far away.
Jack’s heart contracted with a stab of pain. He dropped his paper, and with one long step crossed the carriage and seated himself by her side. Ruth turned in her seat to stare more persistently out of her window, and the clattering of the train made it impossible to overhear a conversation.
“Mollie!” said Jack softly.
She turned her head and looked at him, neither startled nor smiling, but with a patient sadness, the sight of which brought with it yet another stab.
“For Heaven’s sake, Mollie, don’t look like that! Things will right themselves again, or you may find that they are not so bad as you expect. In any case, there’s a pleasure in helping to pull them straight. It may be a tug just at first, but that only means more satisfaction in the end. Don’t look so sad! I can’t bear to leave you looking like that.”
Mollie gave a flickering smile. She had not been thinking of business troubles, but naturally Jack could not guess that.
“Once on a time—do you remember?—you wished that I could be serious. You should not complain because your wish is fulfilled,” she said slowly; and Jack put up a protesting hand.
“Don’t! don’t! I was a fool! I didn’t know what I was saying. You were made to be happy; you should always be happy if I could arrange it for you.”