Nearing the door yet again, she opened it, and went
upstairs.
Five minutes, and she had made herself ready to go out. At the foot
of the stairs she called to her servant.
"I must go into Polterham, Annie. If Mr. Quarrier should come whilst
I'm away, say that Mrs. Quarrier and I have gone out, but shall be
back very soon. You understand that?"
Then she set forth, and hurried along the dark road.
CHAPTER XXV
Only one vehicle passed her before she came within sight of the
streets; it was a carriage and pair, and she recognised the coachman
of a family who lived towards Rickstead. Quarrier was doubtless
still in the town, but to find him might be difficult. Perhaps she
had better go to his house and despatch a servant in search of him.
But that was away on the other side of Polterham, and in the
meantime he might be starting for Pear-tree Cottage. The polling was
long since over; would he linger with his friends at the committee
room?
Yet she must go to the house first of all; there was a reason for it
which only now occurred to her.
The main thoroughfares, usually silent and forsaken at this hour,
were alive with streams of pedestrians, with groups of argumentative
electors, with noisy troops of lads and girls who occasionally
amused themselves with throwing mud at some unpopular person, or
even breaking a window and rushing off with yells into the darkness
of byways.
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