Wade would have spoken her mind very distinctly to any one who
wished to circumscribe female freedom in such respects. They had
conversed on a great variety of subjects with unflagging animation.
Since then he had not seen his acquaintance.
A young girl opened to him, and left him standing in the porch for a
minute or two. She returned, and asked him to walk into the
sitting-room, where Mrs. Wade was studying with her feet on the
fender.
"Do I come unseasonably?" he asked, offering his hand.
"Not if you have anything interesting to say," was the curious
reply.
The widow was not accounted for reception of visitors. She wore an
old though quite presentable dress, with a light shawl about her
shoulders, and had evidently postponed the arrangement of her hair
until the time of going abroad. Yet her appearance could hardly be
called disconcerting, for it had nothing of slovenliness. She looked
a student, that was all. For some reason, however, she gave Quarrier
a less cordial welcome than he had anticipated. Her eyes avoided
his, she shook hands in a perfunctory way.
"It depends what you call interesting," was his rejoinder to the
unconventional reply. "I got here yesterday, and brought a wife with
me--there, at all events, is a statement of fact."
"You have done me the honour to hasten here with the announcement?"
"I came out to see if Bale Water was skateable, and I thought I
might venture to make a friendly call whilst I was so near.
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