第108章

'A man came down in the train with me who says he is going over to Allington,' said Johnny. 'I wonder who he can be. He is staying at "The Magpie".'

'A friend of Captain Dale's probably,' said Mary. Captain Dale was the squire's nephew and his heir.

'But this man was not going to the squire's. He was going to the Small House.'

'Is he going to stay there?'

'I suppose not, as he asked about the inn.' Then, Johnny reflected that he might possibly be a friend of Crosbie's, and became melancholy in consequence. Crosbie might have thought it expedient to send an ambassador down to prepare the ground for him before he should venture again upon the scene himself. If it were so, would it not be well that he, John Eames, should get over to Lily as soon as possible, and not wait till he should be staying with Lady Julia?

It was at any rate incumbent upon him to call upon Lady Julia the next morning, because of his commission. The Berlin wool might remain in his portmanteau till his portmanteau should go with him to the cottage; but he would take the spectacles at once, and he must explain to Lady Julia what the lawyers had told him about the income. So he hired a saddle-horse from 'The Magpie' and started after breakfast on the morning after his arrival. In his unheroic days he would have walked--as he had done, scores of times, over the whole distance from Guestwick to Allington. But now, in these grander days, he thought about his boots and the mud, and the formal appearance of the thing. 'Ah dear,' he said to himself, as the nag walked slowly out of the town, 'it used to be better with the old days. I hardly hoped that she would ever accept me, but at least she had never refused me. And then that brute had not as yet made his way down to Allington!'

He did not go very fast. After leaving the town he trotted on for a mile or so. But when he got to the palings of Guestwick Manor he let the animal walk again, and his mind ran back over the incidents of his life which were connected with the place. He remembered a certain long ramble which he had taken in those days woods after Lily had refused him. That had been subsequent to the Crosbie episode in his life, and Johnny had been led to hope by certain of his friends--especially by Lord De Guest and his sister--that he might then be successful. But he had been unsuccessful, and had passed the bitterest hour of life wandering about in those woods. Since that he had been unsuccessful again and again; but the bitterness of failure had not been so strong with him as on that first occasion. He would try again now, and if he failed, he would fail for the last time. As he was thinking of all this, a gig overtook him on the road, and on looking round he saw that the occupant of the gig was the man who had travelled with him on the previous day in the train.

Major Grantly was alone in the gig, and as he recognised John Eames he stopped his horse. 'Are you going to Allington?' he asked. John Eames, with something of scorn in his voice, replied that he had no intention of going to Allington on that day. He still thought that this man might be an emissary from Crosbie, and therefore resolved that but scant courtesy was due to him. 'I am on my way there now,' said Grantly, 'and am going to the house of your friend. May I tell her that I travelled with you yesterday?'

'Yes, sir,' said Johnny. 'You may tell her that you came down with John Eames.'

'And are you John Eames?' asked the major.

'If you have no objection,' said Johnny. 'But I can hardly suppose that you have heard of my name before?'

'It is familiar to me because I have the pleasure of knowing a cousin of yours, Grace Crawley.'

'My cousin is at present staying at Allington with Mrs Dale,' said Johnny.