WYLDER'S HAJVD.
317
"I am afraid lam a very impertinent — at least a
very inquisitive — wayfarer; but I could not pass by
without a word, even at the risk of interrupting you.
And the truth is, I believe, if it had not been for that
chance of seeing and interrupting you, I should not have
passed through Redman's Dell to-day."
He laughed a little as he said this; and held her hands
some seconds longer than is strictly usual in such a greet-
ing-
"You are staying at Brandon?" said Rachel, not
knowing exactly what to say.
"Yes; Dorcas, who is always very good to me, made
me promise to' come whenever I was at Drackley. I ar-
rived yesterday, and they tell me you stay so much at
home, that possibly you might not appear in the upper
world for two or three days; so I had not patience, you
see."
It was now Rachel's turn to laugh a musical little rou-
lade; but somehow her talk was neither so gay, nor so
voluble, as it used to be. She liked to listen; but there
was an unwonted difficulty in finding anything to say.
"It is quite true; I am more a stay-at-home than I
used to be. I believe we learn to prize home more the
longer we live."
"I don't wonder at your being a stay-at-home, for, to
my eyes, it is the prettiest spot of earth in all the world;
and if you find it half as hard to leave it as I do, your
staying here is quite accounted for."
Rachel understood this little speech quite well, though
she went on as if she did not.
"And this little garden costs. I assure you, a great
deal of wise thought. In sowing my annuals I have so
much to forecast and arrange; suitability of climate, for
we have sun and shade here, succession of bloom and con-
trast of color, and ever so many other important things."