One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
pitied reflecting on his honest intentions; it ceased to
discolour another. He dropped a few particulars of his hero
in action; but the heroine eclipsed. He was heavier than ever
with his Matilda Pridden. At the hour for departure, Perrin
had a conveyance at the door. Nesta sent off Skepsey with a
complimentary message to Captain Dartrey. Her maid Mary
begged her to finish her breakfast; Manton suggested the
waiting a further two or three minutes. ‘We must not be
late,’ Nesta said; and when the minute-hand of the clock
marked ample time for the drive to the station, she took her
seat and started, keeping her face resolutely set seaward, having
at her ears the ring of a cry that was to come from Manton.
But Manton was dumb; she spied no one on the pavement
who signalled to stop them. And no one was at the station to
greet them. They stepped into a carriage where they were
alone. Dudley with his dreaded generosity melted out of
Nesta’s thoughts, like the vanishing steam-wreath on the dip
between the line and the downs.
She passed into music, as she always did under motion of
carriages and trains, whether in happiness or sadness: and
the day being one that had a sky, the scenic of music swung
her up to soar. None of her heavy burdens enchained, though
she knew the weight of them, with those of other painful
souls. The pipeing at her breast gave wings to large and small
of the visible; and along the downs went stateliest of flowing
dances; a copse lengthened to forest; a pool of cattle-water
caught grey for flights through enchantment. Cottage-children,
wherever seen in groups, she wreathed above with angels
to watch them. Her mind all the while was busy upon
earth, embracing her mother, eyeing her father. Imagination
and our earthly met midway, and still she flew, until she was
brought to the ground by a shot. She struggled to rise, uplifting
Judith Marsett: a woman not so very much older than
her own teens, in the count of years, and ages older; and the
world pulling at her heels to keep her low. That unhappiest
had no one but a sisterly girl to help her: and how she clung
to the slender help! Who else was there?
The good and the bad in the woman struck separate blows
upon the girl’s resonant nature. She perceived the good, and
took it into her reflections. The bad she divined: it approached
like some threat of inflammation. Natures resonant as that
which animated this girl, are quick at the wells of under-
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