“Come, you’ll go on with us, Adam,” Mr. Poyser said when they reached the turning; and as soon as they were in the fields Adam ventured to offer his arm to Hetty.  The children soon gave them an opportunity of lingering behind a little, and then Adam said: 

“Will you contrive for me to walk out in the garden a bit with you this evening, if it keeps fine, Hetty?  I’ve something partic’lar to talk to you about.”

Hetty said, “Very well.”  She was really as anxious as Adam was that she should have some private talk with him.  She wondered what he thought of her and Arthur.  He must have seen them kissing, she knew, but she had no conception of the scene that had taken place between Arthur and Adam.  Her first feeling had been that Adam would be very angry with her, and perhaps would tell her aunt and uncle, but it never entered her mind that he would dare to say anything to Captain Donnithorne.  It was a relief to her that he behaved so kindly to her to-day, and wanted to speak to her alone, for she had trembled when she found he was going home with them lest he should mean “to tell.”  But, now he wanted to talk to her by herself, she should learn what he thought and what he meant to do.  She felt a certain confidence that she could persuade him not to do anything she did not want him to do; she could perhaps even make him believe that she didn’t care for Arthur; and as long as Adam thought there was any hope of her having him, he would do just what she liked, she knew.  Besides, she must go on seeming to encourage Adam, lest her uncle and aunt should be angry and suspect her of having some secret lover.

Hetty’s little brain was busy with this combination as she hung on Adam’s arm and said “yes” or “no” to some slight observations of his about the many hawthorn-berries there would be for the birds this next winter, and the low-hanging clouds that would hardly hold up till morning.  And when they rejoined her aunt and uncle, she could pursue her thoughts without interruption, for Mr. Poyser held that though a young man might like to have the woman he was courting on his arm, he would nevertheless be glad of a little reasonable talk about business the while; and, for his own part, he was curious to heal the most recent news about the Chase Farm.  So, through the rest of the walk, he claimed Adam’s conversation for himself, and Hetty laid her small plots and imagined her little scenes of cunning blandishment, as she walked along by the hedgerows on honest Adam’s arm, quite as well as if she had been an elegantly clad coquette alone in her boudoir.  For if a country beauty in clumsy shoes be only shallow-hearted enough, it is astonishing how closely her mental processes may resemble those of a lady in society and crinoline, who applies her refined intellect to the problem of committing indiscretions without compromising herself.  Perhaps the resemblance was not much the less because Hetty felt very unhappy all the while.  The parting