He stopped the car at once,
and got out.
He reached her at the ruin, screened from the road, by that divine
chance which attends on men who take care that it shall. He could not
tell whether she knew of his approach, and he would have given all he
had, which was not much, to have seen through the stiff grey of her
coat, and the soft cream of her body, into that mysterious cave, her
heart. To have been for a moment, like Ashman, done for good and all
with material things, and living the white life where are no barriers
between man and woman. The smile on her lips so baffled him, puffed
there by her spirit, as a first flower is puffed through the sur face
of earth to mock at the spring winds. How tell what it signified! Yet
he rather prided himself on his knowledge of women, of whom he had seen
something. But all he found to say was:
"I'm glad of this chance."
Then suddenly looking up, he found her strangely pale and quivering.
"I shall see you in London!" she said; and, touching her horse with her
whip, without looking back, she rode away over the hill.
Courtier returned to the moor road, and getting into the car, muttered:
"Faster, please, Frith!"....
CHAPTER XXII
Polling was already in brisk progress when Courtier arrived in
Bucklandbury; and partly from a not unnatural interest in the result,
partly from a half-unconscious clinging to the chance of catching
another glimpse of Barbara, he took his bag to the hotel, determined
to stay for the announcement of the poll.
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