But each cloud of dust that enlarged in the
distance and drew near was found to disclose a conveyance other than
his post-chaise. Barbara remained till the appointment was two
hours passed, and then began to fear that owing to some adverse wind
in the Channel he was not coming that night.
While waiting she was conscious of a curious trepidation that was
not entirely solicitude, and did not amount to dread; her tense
state of incertitude bordered both on disappointment and on relief.
She had lived six or seven weeks with an imperfectly educated yet
handsome husband whom now she had not seen for seventeen months, and
who was so changed physically by an accident that she was assured
she would hardly know him. Can we wonder at her compound state of
mind?
But her immediate difficulty was to get away from Lornton Inn, for
her situation was becoming embarrassing. Like too many of Barbara's
actions, this drive had been undertaken without much reflection.
Expecting to wait no more than a few minutes for her husband in his
post-chaise, and to enter it with him, she had not hesitated to
isolate herself by sending back her own little vehicle. She now
found that, being so well known in this neighbourhood, her excursion
to meet her long-absent husband was exciting great interest. She
was conscious that more eyes were watching her from the inn-windows
than met her own gaze. Barbara had decided to get home by hiring
whatever kind of conveyance the tavern afforded, when, straining her
eyes for the last time over the now darkening highway, she perceived
yet another dust-cloud drawing near.
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