d itself, and then she
glanced back at Dale. He was staring straight in front, not looking to
left or right, as if focusing the roadway between the horse's ears.

"It's uphill now, Will, all the way, isn't it? Oh, that's a new
cottage. How red the bricks are!"

They had left all the trees behind them now, and, going up the slope
through the last strip of fields, they soon emerged on the open heath.
For a mile or two the landscape was wildly sad in aspect, just a waste
of sand and heather, with naked ridges and boggy hollows, one or two
wind-swept hillocks that bore a ragged crest of blackened firs, and in
the farthest distance massive contours of grassy down rising as a
barrier to guard the fertile valleys of another county. It was here
that the riderless horse had galloped about and been hunted by the
people from the cross road cottages.

"You _have_ driven well. I think it's wonderful, considering what a
little practise you get.... Look, I believe that's a hawk. Must be!
Nothing but a hawk could stand so still in the air. He can see
something down under him, I suppose. Rabbits, perhaps. Though I don't
suppose he'd strike at anything as big as a rabbit, would he?"

Mavis chattered vigorously, to prevent her husband from brooding on
painful things; but, even while talking, she did not obliterate her
own real thoughts. Inside her there seemed to be a running chorus of
unuttered words, and she listened to the inner voice even when at her
busiest with the outward sounding voice.

"Has he truly left me money? If so, how much?" These mute questions
were perpetually repeated. "A hundred pounds? Perhaps more than that.
He gave me two hundred when I married. Suppose he has left me quite a
lot of money."

It was not market-day, and the town therefore was not at its best and
brightest. Nevertheless, the appearance of shops, pavements, and
nicely dressed young ladies, had a most exhilarating effect on Mavis
when, after putting up the horse and cart, Dale solemnly conducted her
through the High Street to the solicitor's office in Church Place.

The interview with Mr. Cleaver did not take long, although such
weighty concerns were spoken of. Dale sat on a chair near the wall,
his hat held between his knees, his eyes lowered; while Mavis sat on
a chair close to the solicitor, talking, flushing, throbbing,
gradually ascending a scale of excitement so feverishly strong that it
seemed as if it must eventually consume her just as