第4章 THE THREE WOMEN(3)

The natural query of an observer would have been, Why should such a promising being as this have hidden his prepossessing exterior by adopting that singular occupation?

After replying to the old man's greeting he showed no inclination to continue in talk, although they still walked side by side, for the elder traveller seemed to desire company.There were no sounds but that of the booming wind upon the stretch of tawny herbage around them, the crackling wheels, the tread of the men, and the footsteps of the two shaggy ponies which drew the van.

They were small, hardy animals, of a breed between Galloway and Exmoor, and were known as "heath-croppers" here.

Now, as they thus pursued their way, the reddleman occasionally left his companion's side, and, stepping behind the van, looked into its interior through a small window.The look was always anxious.He would then return to the old man, who made another remark about the state of the country and so on, to which the reddleman again abstractedly replied, and then again they would lapse into silence.

The silence conveyed to neither any sense of awkwardness;in these lonely places wayfarers, after a first greeting, frequently plod on for miles without speech; contiguity amounts to a tacit conversation where, otherwise than in cities, such contiguity can be put an end to on the merest inclination, and where not to put an end to it is intercourse in itself.

Possibly these two might not have spoken again till their parting, had it not been for the reddleman's visits to his van.

When he returned from his fifth time of looking in the old man said, "You have something inside there besides your load?""Yes."

"Somebody who wants looking after?"

"Yes."

Not long after this a faint cry sounded from the interior.

The reddleman hastened to the back, looked in, and came away again.

"You have a child there, my man?"

"No, sir, I have a woman."

"The deuce you have! Why did she cry out?""Oh, she has fallen asleep, and not being used to traveling, she's uneasy, and keeps dreaming.""A young woman?"

"Yes, a young woman."

"That would have interested me forty years ago.

Perhaps she's your wife?"

"My wife!" said the other bitterly."She's above mating with such as I.But there's no reason why I should tell you about that.""That's true.And there's no reason why you should not.

What harm can I do to you or to her?"

The reddleman looked in the old man's face."Well, sir,"he said at last, "I knew her before today, though perhaps it would have been better if I had not.But she's nothing to me, and I am nothing to her; and she wouldn't have been in my van if any better carriage had been there to take her.""Where, may I ask?"

"At Anglebury."

"I know the town well.What was she doing there?""Oh, not much--to gossip about.However, she's tired to death now, and not at all well, and that's what makes her so restless.

She dropped off into a nap about an hour ago, and 'twill do her good.""A nice-looking girl, no doubt?"

"You would say so."

The other traveller turned his eyes with interest towards the van window, and, without withdrawing them, said, "I presume I might look in upon her?""No," said the reddleman abruptly."It is getting too dark for you to see much of her; and, more than that, I have no right to allow you.Thank God she sleeps so well, I hope she won't wake till she's home.""Who is she? One of the neighbourhood?"

"'Tis no matter who, excuse me."

"It is not that girl of Blooms-End, who has been talked about more or less lately? If so, I know her; and I can guess what has happened.""'Tis no matter....Now, sir, I am sorry to say that we shall soon have to part company.My ponies are tired, and I have further to go, and I am going to rest them under this bank for an hour."The elder traveller nodded his head indifferently, and the reddleman turned his horses and van in upon the turf, saying, "Good night." The old man replied, and proceeded on his way as before.

The reddleman watched his form as it diminished to a speck on the road and became absorbed in the thickening films of night.He then took some hay from a truss which was slung up under the van, and, throwing a portion of it in front of the horses, made a pad of the rest, which he laid on the ground beside his vehicle.

Upon this he sat down, leaning his back against the wheel.

From the interior a low soft breathing came to his ear.

It appeared to satisfy him, and he musingly surveyed the scene, as if considering the next step that he should take.

To do things musingly, and by small degrees, seemed, indeed, to be a duty in the Egdon valleys at this transitional hour, for there was that in the condition of the heath itself which resembled protracted and halting dubiousness.

It was the quality of the repose appertaining to the scene.

This was not the repose of actual stagnation, but the apparent repose of incredible slowness.A condition of healthy life so nearly resembling the torpor of death is a noticeable thing of its sort; to exhibit the inertness of the desert, and at the same time to be exercising powers akin to those of the meadow, and even of the forest, awakened in those who thought of it the attentiveness usually engendered by understatement and reserve.

The scene before the reddleman's eyes was a gradual series of ascents from the level of the road backward into the heart of the heath.It embraced hillocks, pits, ridges, acclivities, one behind the other, till all was finished by a high hill cutting against the still light sky.

The traveller's eye hovered about these things for a time, and finally settled upon one noteworthy object up there.

It was a barrow.This bossy projection of earth above its natural level occupied the loftiest ground of the loneliest height that the heath contained.Although from the vale it appeared but as a wart on an Atlantean brow, its actual bulk was great.It formed the pole and axis of this heathery world.