’I hope, indeed—­I am sure we shall get on very well.  You forget that I can do something to keep myself,’ she added, smiling.  ’I have two or three orders.’

She passed her arm through Dr. Reed’s; and as he unfolded his plans to her, he held her hand warmly and affectionately in his:  and as the twilight drifted it was wrapped like a veil about them.  The rooks in great flitting flocks passed over their heads, the tempestuous crimson of the sky had been hurled further away, and only the form of the grey horse, that the boy had allowed to graze, stood out distinctly in the gloom that descended upon the earth.

XXVIII

On the very first opportunity she could find Alice told her mother that Dr. Reed had proposed to her, and that she had accepted him.  Mrs. Barton said it was disgraceful, and that she would never hear of such a marriage; and when the doctor called next day she acquainted him with her views on the subject.  She told him he had very improperly taken advantage of his position to make love to her daughter; she really didn’t know how he could ever have arrived at the conclusion that a match was possible, and that for the future his visits must cease at Brookfield.  And when Alice heard what had passed between Dr. Reed and her mother she wrote, assuring him that her feelings towards him would remain uninfluenced by anything that anyone might say.  All the same, it might be as well, having regard for what had happened, that the marriage should take place with the least possible delay.

She took this letter down to the post-office herself, and when she returned she entered the drawing-room and told Mrs. Barton what she had done.

’I wish you had shown me the letter before you sent it.  There is nothing we need advice about so much as a letter.’

‘Yes, mother,’ replied Alice, deceived by the gentleness of Mrs. Barton’s manner; ’but we seemed to hold such widely different views on this matter that there did not seem to be any use in discussing it.’

’Mother and daughter should never hold different views; my children’s interests are my interests—­what interests have I now but theirs?’

‘Oh, mother!  Then you will consent to this marriage?’

Mrs. Barton’s face always changed expression before a direct question.  ’My dear, I would consent to anything that would make you happy; but it seems to me impossible that you could be happy with Dr. Reed.  I wonder how you could like him.  You do not know—­I mean, you do not realize what the intimacies of married life are.  They are often hard to put up with, no matter who the man may be, but with one who is not a gentleman—­’

’But, mother, Dr. Reed seems to me to be in every way a gentleman.  Who is there more gentlemanly in the country?  I am sure that from every point of view he is preferable to Mr. Adair or Sir Charles, or Sir Richard or Mr. Ryan, or his cousin, Mr. Lynch.’