Meanwhile Mrs. Melbury, deserted by Grace, had perceived Fitzpiers and
Winterborne, and also the move of the latter. An improvement on
Grammer's idea entered the mind of Mrs. Melbury, for she had lately
discerned what her husband had not--that Grace was rapidly fascinating
the surgeon. She therefore drew near to Fitzpiers.
"You should be where Mr. Winterborne is standing," she said to him,
significantly. "She will run down through that opening much faster
than she went up it, if she is like the rest of the girls."
Fitzpiers did not require to be told twice. He went across to
Winterborne and stood beside him. Each knew the probable purpose of
the other in standing there, and neither spoke, Fitzpiers scorning to
look upon Winterborne as a rival, and Winterborne adhering to the
off-hand manner of indifference which had grown upon him since his
dismissal.
Neither Grammer nor Marty South had seen the surgeon's manoeuvre, and,
still to help Winterborne, as she supposed, the old woman suggested to
the wood-girl that she should walk forward at the heels of Grace, and
"tole" her down the required way if she showed a tendency to run in
another direction. Poor Marty, always doomed to sacrifice desire to
obligation, walked forward accordingly, and waited as a beacon, still
and silent, for the retreat of Grace and her giddy companions, now
quite out of hearing.
The first sound to break the silence was the distant note of Great
Hintock clock striking the significant hour. About a minute later that
quarter of the wood to which the girls had wandered resounded with the
flapping of disturbed birds; then two or three hares and rabbits
bounded down the glade from the same direction, and after these the
rustling and crackling of leaves and dead twigs denoted the hurried
approach of the adventurers, whose fluttering gowns soon became
visible. Miss Melbury, having gone forward quite in the rear of the
rest, was one of the first to return, and the excitement being
contagious, she ran laughing towards Marty, who still stood as a
hand-post to guide her; then, passing on, she flew round the fatal bush
where the undergrowth narrowed to a gorge. Marty arrived at her heels
just in time to see the result. Fitzpiers had quickly stepped forward
in front of Winterborne, who, disdaining to shift his position, had
turned on his heel, and then the surgeon did what he would not have
thought of doing but for Mrs. Melbury's encouragement and the sentiment
of an eve which effaced conventionality. Stretching out his arms as
the white figure burst upon him, he captured her in a moment, as if she
had been a bird.