“Trust Temperance for that,” said Sidney.
“Yes, indeed,” said Lanty. “Ta-ta, girls.”
“Lanty,” said Mabella, “be careful of the belt.”
“Surely,” he said, his voice softening. The next moment his strong, lithe figure had swung jauntily through the narrow space between the broad whirling belt and the door.
“Nathan,” said Mabella, “Temperance wants you to get someone to mind the engine for ten minutes before dinner, so that you can come round and carve the meat.”
“I’ll be there,” said Nathan, then he added with an irrepressible and comical self-importance:
“Meat ain’t worth puttin’ teeth into if it ain’t cut up proper.”
“That’s very true,” said Sidney, who felt a great kindliness in his heart for this patient lover.
“Well,” said Mabella briskly, “I’m going round to help set the table.” Having seen Lanty, Mabella wished to get off alone to think over his perfections, which impressed her afresh each time she saw him.
“O! can’t you come for a little wander?” asked Sidney of Vashti. “There’s nothing to be done in the house; besides, that imp from the preacher’s is there, and I’m sure she is a host in herself.”
“Yes,” said Vashti, her voice more than usually vibrant. “Yes, I will come.”
She was very pale. She turned away as Jephthah’s daughter turned from the promise of her bridal bower. For, during these few minutes of idle speech amid the whirr of the threshing mill, Vashti Lansing had taken her final decision. She would marry Sidney Martin; but on her own terms, she added to herself. And then she went with him across the stubble, where the late rains had made a phantom spring of fresh green grass and over-eager weeds, which were putting forth their tender tops only to be a prey to the first sneering frost.
Ah, how futile and inconsequent it is to trace laboriously the windings of cause and effect; a touch often sends one over the precipice, and a smile, a sigh or a silence brings us face to face with Fate. Can we by searching find these things?
And Sidney, too, felt the fateful words trembling upon his lips, a keen envy of personal happiness possessed this man, who so rarely sought his own good. A great longing to stand as Lanty had stood, with the promise of life’s fulfilment at his side.