Holbrook where I was going, and when I hoped to be
back. She was in very good spirits that morning, for she expected her
husband next day. 'I have told him nothing about the good fortune that
has come to me, Nelly,' she said; 'I have only written to him, begging
him to return as quickly as possible, and he will be here to-morrow by
the afternoon express.' Mr. Holbrook is a great walker, and generally
walks from Malsham here, by a shorter way than the high-road, across some
fields and by the river-bank. His wife used always to go part of the way
to meet him when she knew he was coming. I know she meant to go and meet
him this time. The way is very lonely, and I have often felt fidgety
about her going alone, but she hadn't a bit of fear; and I didn't like to
offer to go with her, feeling sure that Mr. Holbrook would be vexed by
seeing me at such a time. Well, sir, I had arranged everything
comfortably, so that she should miss nothing by my being away, and I bade
her good-bye, and started off to walk to Malsham. I can't tell you how
hard it seemed to me to leave her, for it was the first time we had been
parted for so much as a day since she came to the Grange. I thought of
her all the while I was at my aunt's; who has very fidgety ways, poor old
lady, and isn't a pleasant person to be with.
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