,
the same way she had come. A long walk down the valley would give fine
opportunity for all that she dreaded in the way of conversation.
However, the order was given about the horses, and the walk began.

The way was at first a continuation of the valley in which the cottages
were situated; uncultivated, sweet, and wild. They were a good distance
beyond Barton's tower. The stream of the Ryth, not so large as it
became further down, sparkled along in a narrow meadow, beset with
flowers. Here and there a rude bridge crossed it; and the walkers
passed as they listed from side to side, wandering down the valley at
great leisure, remarking upon all sorts of things except what Eleanor
was dreading. The walk and talk went on without anything formidable.
Mr. Carlisle seemed to have nothing on his mind; and Eleanor, full of
what was on hers, only felt through his quiet demeanour that he was
taking things for granted in a very cool way. She was vexed and
irritated, and at the same time subdued. And then an opposite feeling
would stir, of pleasure and pride, at the place she was taking and the
relations she was assuming to the beautiful domain through which they
wandered. As they went down the valley it grew more and more lovely.
Luxuriant growths of ash and oak mingled with larches, crowned the
rising borders of the valley and crept down their sides, hanging a most
exquisite clothing of vegetation over the banks which had hitherto been
mostly bare. As they went, from point to point and in one after another
region of beauty, her companion's talk, quietly flowing on, called her
attention to one and another observation suggested by what they were
looking at; not as if it were a foreign matter, but with a tacit
intimation that it concerned her or had a right to her interest. It was
a long walk. They were some time before reaching the old tower; then a
long stretch of beautiful scenes lay between them and the old priory
ruins. This part of the valley was in the highest degree picturesque.
The sides drew together, close and rocky and overshadowed with a
thicket of trees. The path of the river became steep and encumbered;
the way along its banks grew comparatively rough and difficult. The day
was delicious, without even a threatening of rain; yet the sun in some
places was completely shut out from the water by the overgrown,
overhanging sides of rock and wood which shut in the dell. Conversation
was broken here, by the pleasant difficu