What could be the cause of her cheerfulness, he wondered, half ironically, and half enviously, as the pony-cart started briskly away, and the dusk swam between their eyes and the tall form of Edward, standing up to drive, with the reins in one hand and the whip in the other.

People from the village, who had been to the market town, were climbing into their gigs, or setting off home down the road together in little parties.

Many salutations were addressed to Mary, who shouted back, with the addition of the speaker's name.

But soon she led the way over a stile, and along a path worn slightly darker than the dim green surrounding it.

In front of them the sky now showed itself of a reddish-yellow, like a slice of some semilucent stone behind which a lamp burnt, while a fringe of black trees with distinct branches stood against the light, which was obscured in one direction by a hump of earth, in all other directions the land lying flat to the very verge of the sky.