Oke, however, broke the silence only by pointing out to me the condition of the hops, as we passed one of his many hop-gardens. “It will be a poor year,” he said, stopping short and looking intently before him—“no hops at all. No hops this autumn.”
I looked at him. It was clear that he had no notion what he was saying. The dark-green bines were covered with fruit; and only yesterday he himself had informed me that he had not seen such a profusion of hops for many years.
I did not answer, and we walked on. A cart met us in a dip of the road, and the carter touched his hat and greeted Mr. Oke. But Oke took no heed; he did not seem to be aware of the man’s presence.
The clouds were collecting all round; black domes, among which coursed the round grey masses of fleecy stuff.
“I think we shall be caught in a tremendous storm,” I said; “hadn’t we better be turning?” He nodded, and turned sharp round.
The sunlight lay in yellow patches under the oaks of the pasture-lands, and burnished the green hedges. The air was heavy and yet cold, and everything seemed preparing for a great storm. The rooks whirled in black clouds round the trees and the conical red caps of the oast-houses which give that country the look of being studded with turreted castles; then they descended—a black line—upon the fields, with what seemed an unearthly loudness of caw. And all round there arose a shrill quavering bleating of lambs and calling of sheep, while the wind began to catch the topmost branches of the trees.
Suddenly Mr. Oke broke the silence.
“I don’t know you very well,” he began hurriedly, and without turning his face towards me; “but I think you are honest, and you have seen a good deal of the world—much more than I. I want you to tell me—but truly, please—what do you think a man should do if”—and he stopped for some minutes.
“Imagine,” he went on quickly, “that a man cares a great deal—a very great deal for his wife, and that he finds out that she—well, that—that she is deceiving him. No—don’t misunderstand me; I mean—that she is constantly surrounded by some one else and will not admit it—some one whom she hides away. Do you understand? Perhaps she does not know all the risk she is running, you know, but she will not draw back—she will not avow it to her husband”—
“My dear Oke,” I interrupted, attempting to take the matter lightly, “these are questions that can’t be solved in the abstract, or by people to whom the thing has not happened. And it certainly has not happened to you or me.”