The Argosy — page 390: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

372 The Village Blacksmith. she would return to get a few clothes, for she was only half-dressed ; but this she must do cautiously, lest her father had gone home in her absence ; and, having got all she wanted, she must set off, though it was the middle of the night, on her way back to Marling. There were no trains till seven o’clock, and it was now about two; to walk the whole way was impossible ; but there was a station on the line to Marling, seven miles from Woodford, to which she determined to walk and wait there if it were open; if not, at the inn tll the first train passed. On getting back to the cottage, she listened outside, but there was not a sound to be heard ; there was no light, the door was still locked, and the window just as she had left it. So, satisfied that Reuben was still out, she put the baby carefully down on the wide window-sill inside the window, and then, with some difficulty, got in herself ; for it was not as easy to get in as it had been to get out. Listening anxiously the while, she put on the rest of her clothes, and packed the carpet bag she had brought with her ; and then, as there was no sign of Reuben to be seen from the window, she tidied her room, and putting a piece of bread and butter in her pocket, took _the baby and the bag, and got safely out of the window a second time. Her shortest road was down the pitch and through the village ; but Janet was afraid to go this way lest she should meet her father; so she chose a longer way, which obliged her first to go to the top of the hill to get into the high road which wound down into the valley. It added a mile to her walk, but she preferred this to running the risk of coming in contact with her father, who she felt sure would return to the tree in which he had left the baby. As she walked along the lonely moonlit road, thanking God that the night was not dark—for, like many country girls, Janet was afraid to be out in the dark—she pondered over her father’s conduct, and the more she puzzled over it, the less she liked it. That he had meant mischief to the child she felt certain, and again and again she clasped it closer to her, rejoicing over it that it was still safe. So taken up with the child was she, that it scarcely occurred to her to think of Reuben’s safety; and indeed by the time she had passed through Woodford and mounted the opposite hill, she was so tired she hardly knew how to go any further. Now that the excite- ment was wearing off, the reaction set in, and she began to realise that the strength she had been feeling was fictitious. And then a terrible fear seized her lest she should faint out here alone in the night ; faint with her precious baby in her arms ; for his sake she must do nothing of the kind. Tired she was; cold also, for the night air was keen, though there was no wind; exhausted, too; but she must not give in; for her child’s sake she must struggle on. She was now walking through the wood in which Captain Raleigh had proposed to Vera, and was about half-way between Woodford and Ashchurch, where Mrs. Jamieson lived. Return to Woodford she dared not; she must ECOMicbooolkxs.com @