Then the drumming fixed her attention and she saw a rig lurch along the uneven trail.

The horses were trotting fast and there were two people in the light wagon.
Helen saw that one was Charnock.

The other, who held the reins, was, no doubt, his wife, and Helen was sorry that Festing was at work beyond the rise.

She would have liked him to be there when she received her visitors, but did not think it prudent to send for him.

The rig was near the house now, and as she got up her dress moved the newspaper, which was caught by a draught and blew down the stairs and across the grass.
It flapped in the fresh wind and fell near the horses' feet.
This was too much for the range-bred animals to stand, and they reared and plunged, and then began to back away from the fluttering white object.