They parted thus and there, and Grace went moodily homeward. Passing
Marty's cottage she observed through the window that the girl was
writing instead of chopping as usual, and wondered what her
correspondence could be. Directly afterwards she met people in search
of her, and reached the house to find all in serious alarm. She soon
explained that she had lost her way, and her general depression was
attributed to exhaustion on that account.
Could she have known what Marty was writing she would have been
surprised.
The rumor which agitated the other folk of Hintock had reached the
young girl, and she was penning a letter to Fitzpiers, to tell him that
Mrs. Charmond wore her hair. It was poor Marty's only card, and she
played it, knowing nothing of fashion, and thinking her revelation a
fatal one for a lover.