Julia roused, shrinking away from the touch, turning to Thair. He almost lifted her to the saddle. But once up, she seemed to wake, to stiffen. She let him take the rein and lead the black through the ragged opening left by the torn-away rails. The carriage had turned down the road under the overarching trees.
Thair watched her anxiously. He kept her rein. He turned, touching his horse lightly with the spur.
“If you can ride as far as the club—” he began.
She pulled herself together, alert, staring at him, at the whispering four.
The rein jerked out of Thair’s hand. He half turned in his saddle, blank, dismayed, as she wheeled and rode furiously after the victoria.
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DARK had shut down in a weeping mist when the carts from the country club drove up the “Miramar” terrace. The doctor’s dry, professional presence met Mrs. Budd’s voluble anxiety on the threshold, and, in a measure, smoothed it.
Oh, it was all right—all right, he assured her; only, the place must be kept quiet. (He had a grudging eye for the people getting out of the carts.) The patient ought to be moved to the cottage hospital, but—He pursed out his lips....
But Mrs. Budd wouldn’t hear of such a thing! Since the poor young man was her guest, had been hurt—she saw it dramatically—in saving her daughter—
“My dear madam, that’s not the point. I want this case under my eye.”
“Not at all—the usual thing. These youngsters all do it, but—send these people away!”
It was hushed enough that night, the house, but full of whispers, conjectures, things told and asked.
“But, afterward, you should have seen her face!”
“Then, of all things, her riding after them!”
So much was out, and so flat, one didn’t know what might jump out next. Julia’s indifference—a stunned quiescence under her mother’s reproaches and the curious glances of the guests—her white face, her blank eyes, added the last touch. “Queer” was the word for it, and this “queerness” clung to them, held them irresolute, was almost too much for their sense of decency. It needed just a turn to start them off, and this Thair gave, cornering Cissy Fitz Hugh, who, in the midst of the indecision, preserved a settled air.