For the past, he excused himself because of the
distance, and his not being a good walker! Even now that he had made up his
mind he was in no haste to set out, but had a long snooze in his armchair
first: it was evening when he climbed the hill and came in sight of the low
gable behind which he was born.
Isy was in the garden gathering up the linen she had spread to dry on the
bushes, when his head came in sight at the top of the brae. She knew him at
once, and stooping behind the gooseberries, fled to the back of the house,
and so away to the moor. James saw the white flutter of a sheet, but
nothing of the hands that took it. He had heard that his mother had a nice
young woman to help her in the house, but cherished so little interest in
home-affairs that the news waked in him no curiosity.
Ever since she came to Stonecross, Isy had been on the outlook lest James
should unexpectedly surprise her, and so be himself surprised into an
involuntary disclosure of his relation to her; and not even by the long
deferring of her hope to see him yet again, had she come to pretermit her
vigilance.
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