Holbrook fully approved. There was a
little gate opening from a broad green lane into one of the fields at the
back of the Grange; and here sometimes of a summer evening they used to
find Frank Randall, who had ridden his father's white pony all the way
from Malsham for the sake of smoking his evening cigar on that particular
spot. They used to find him seated there, smoking lazily, while the pony
cropped the grass in the lane close at hand. He was always eager to do
any little service for Mrs. Holbrook; to bring her books or anything else
she wanted from Malsham--anything that might make an excuse for his
coming again by appointment, and with the certainty of seeing Ellen
Carley. It was only natural that Marian should be inclined to protect
this simple love-affair, which offered her favourite a way of escape from
the odious marriage that her father pressed upon her. The girl might have
to endure poverty as Frank Randall's wife; but that seemed a small thing
in the eyes of Marian, compared with the horror of marrying that
pale-faced mean-looking little man, whom she had seen once or twice
sitting by the fire in the oak parlour, with his small light-grey eyes
fixed in a dull stare upon the bailiff's daughter.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JACOB NOWELL'S WILL.
At his usual hour, upon the evening after his arrival in London, Gilbert
Fenton called at the silversmith's shop in Queen Anne's Court.
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