But he was touched in his way
by her white, weary face, and he busied himself in making the fire
burn bright, and in setting out her dinner table with all the womanly
delicacies he knew she liked. If Elizabeth could only have fully
trusted him, Jasper would have been true as steel to her, a very sure
and certain friend; but he resented trouble from which he was shut
out, and he was shrewd enough to feel that it was present, though
hidden from him.
"Has any one been here while I was, absent, Jasper?"
"Ay, Squire Fairleigh and Miss Fairleigh called; and Martha Craven
was here this morning. I think Martha is talking wi' Nancy Bates now--
she looked a bit i' trouble. It's like Ben's wife hes hed a fuss wi'
her!"
"I think not, Jasper. Tell her I wish to see her."
The two women stood looking at each other a moment, Elizabeth trembling
with anxiety, Martha listening to the retreating steps of Jasper.
"It is a' as you wished, Miss Hallam."
"Is Ben back?"
"Ay, early this morning."
"Did he meet any one he knew?"
"He met Tim Hardcastle just outside Hallam, _that night_. Tim
said, 'Thou's late starting wheriver to, Ben;' and Ben said, 'Nay,
I'm early. If a man wants a bit o' good wool he's got to be after it.'
This morning he came back wi' tax-cart full o' wool."
"And my brother?"
"He sailed from Whitehaven yesterday.
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