Harvest

ought that her harvesting would be really over, he set out on his motor bicycle, one fine evening, as soon as work at the ca

country, was by no means exhausted. There were times when the cottage gardens, the endless hedge-rows, and miniature plantations pleased him like the detail in those early Florentine pictures in the Metropolitan Museum, for which, business man as he was, and accustomed to the wilds, he had once or twice, on visits to New York, discovered in himself a considerable taste. He was a man, indeed, of many aptitudes, and of a loyal and affectionate temper. His father, a country doctor, now growing old, his mother, still pretty at sixty, and his two unmarried sisters were all very dear to him. He wrote to t

d by it; and their men were brought up in the atmosphere created by it. And as affection and tenderness and self-sacrifice were freely mixed with the asceticism, there was no rebellion-at any rate no open rebellion-among their men folk. The atmosphere created led, no doubt, to certain evasions of the hard problems of life; and to some quiet revaluations of things and persons when the sons of the family came to men's estate. But in general the "ape and tiger," still surviving in the normal human being, had been really and effectively tamed in the Ellesborough race. There was

held also very strong beliefs, seldom expressed, as to their social disadvantages and their physical weakness. The record of the Germans towards women in France and Flanders, a record he had verified for himself, had perhaps done more than anything else to feed the stern flame of war in his own soul. At thirty-two, he would probably have already been a marr

stone would no doubt have the cutting of it. The farm quadrangle, with its sixteenth century barn, out of which the corn seemed to be actually bursting from various open doors and windows, appeared to him through that glamour which, for the intelligent American, belongs

cks were visible; while in the hayfields running up to the woods, large hay-stacks, already nearly thatched, showed dimly in the evening light. And all this was run by women, worked by Women! Well, American women, so h

uld see that the walls of it were only a brick thick, and in spite of the pretty curtains, he was struck by the odd feature of

owever, if there's nobody to look

ly in the sitting-room, at its farther end. They were standing, he presently perceived, upon the steep down beyond the house, on the slope of which the farm was built; which on t

life, both before and since the war, had only increased a natural instinct for order and seemliness. The pretty blue paper, the fresh drugget, the photographs on the wall, the flowers, and the delicate neatness of everything

A

smile overspreadi

ded to the mistress of the farm. So she had followed his advice. It pleased him particularly! He had gathered that she

iano! He wondered whether

changing was only half through when she heard the rattle of Ellesborough's cycle outside. She stood now before the glass, a radiant daughter of air and earth; her veins, as it were, still full of the sheer pleasure of her long day among the stubbles and the young stock. She was tired, of course; and she knew very well t

ed her to dawdle a little over the last touches of her toilet. She had put on a thin, black dress, which tamed the exuberance of her face and hair, and set off the brilliance and fineness of her skin where the open blouse displayed it. T

y. "I wish he knew!" she thought, and the glass reflected a frown of perplexity. Had she been wise, after all, to make such a complete mystery of the past? People in and about Ipscombe would probably know some time-what all her

," she thought vehement

the mood to feel a certain childish exultation in the plenty of the farm, amid the general rationing. The possession of her seven milch cows, the daily pleasure of the milk, morning and evening, the sight of the rich separated cream, and of the butter as it came fresh from the churn, the growing weight and sleekness of the calves; all these things g

o one's lea

re as she turned away from the glass. It w

represented the Food Control of the neighbourhood, and the mere sight of whom was enough to jog

*

he quality of it, hurriedly asked to be allowed to take their meal in the tiny scullery behind the living room. But the democratic and dissenting Janet would not hear of it. There was room for eve

rough was on Rachel's right, the vicar on Janet's; Miss Shenstone sat between the two girls, and was so far from objecting to their company that she no sooner found she was to sit next the daughter of her brother's handy-man than her childish face flushed with pleasure. She had seen Jenny already at her brother's Bible-class, and she had been drawn to her. Something in the character of the labourer's daughter se

nd of his elder sister, Eleanor, who was his permanent companion and housekeeper at the vicarage. For why should her brother be so specially assiduous in the harvest operations at Great End? She was well aware that it was the right and popular thing for the young clergy who were refused service at the front to be seen in their shirt sleeves as agricultural volunteers, or in some form of war work. A neighbouring

r to stand with her while she proudly watched her new reaping machine, with the three fine horses abreast, sweeping round her biggest field, while the ripe sheaves fell beside it, as of old they fell beside the reapers that Hoephoestus wrought in gleaming gold on the shield of Achilles; and then perhaps to pay a last visit with her to the farm buildings in the warm dusk and watch the cattle coming in from the fields and the evening feed, and all the shutting up for the night after the long, hot, busy day: these

which there would have been no transfiguring light at all. He confessed to himself that she had never had much to say to him. But wherever she was she drew the male

, and that the vicar's own peace of mind was in danger. His standards also were no l

lesborough, when, thanks to the exertions of Janet and the

t her, smiling, and Rachel's eyebrows went up s

ndifferently. "It is

shed a

hasis. "But you said you would have finished with the harv

verflowed eyes and lips, and stirre

the pr

day. We did everything we could, but he

t have been h

ws! But I hope I'll have a look in first. I've got my orders. As soon as they've appointed

August days. Ellesborough responded eagerly, describing the huge convoy with which he himself had come over; and that amazing, that incredible march across three thousand miles of sea and land, which every day was pouring into the British Isles, and so into France, some 15,0

by the eyes of Rachel Henderson, and those slight gestures or movements by

tone was parti

g breath-"I mean America and England. Friends for ever! And we quarre

"Why, if it hadn't been for this war, millions of these boys who are coming over now

We must get rid of our abominable shyness, and let

ittle defiant s

us, too!" she said, wi

orne it for four years

y, "up to the neck. But-of course-don't thank

coffee as a finish to the meal. Under cover of the slight bustle, El

etter sometimes, Miss H

was nothing the least patronizing or arrogant in his manner. But there wa

writer," she said, as s

o and look

ith dark hanging woods, lay quiet under a sky full of faint stars. The scent of the stubblefields, of the great corn-stack just beyond the farmyard, of the big barn so full that the wide wooden doors could not be c

ssing two little calves whom Jenny was feeding by hand. Ellesborough was amused by her technical talk and her proprietor's airs. It seemed to him a kind of play-acting, but it fascinated him. Janet had brought in a lantern, and the light and shade of it seemed to have been specially devised to bring into relief Rachel's round and tempting beauty, the bright brown of her hair where it cu

ed him. "There are horrid holes in this

Ellesborough threw out a quick hand and cau

were the vicar and his sister waiting to say good-night-the vicar much chagrined that he had seen so little of his chief hostess, and inclined to feel that his self-sacrificing attention to Miss Leighton at supper ha

urned to E

o up the hi

m with all the arts of a woman resolved to please. And he allowed himself to be handled at her will. He told her about his people, and his friends, about the ideas and ambitions, also, with which he had come to Europe, which were now in abeyance, but were to spring to active life after the war. Forestry on a great scale; a part to be played in the preservation and development of the vast fo

of his castle-bui

this. I'm going out to the front direc

e said invol

o die just yet. I want to g

ghtly, and

at's easy

breath, sat down on a fallen log to rest a little. Below them stretched the hollow upland, with its encircling w

the grass road by

't seen t

she had pieced it all together; and it seemed to E

long it. And then he fell, just under my cart-shed. It was a horrible, bitter night. Of course the silly people her

laughing gently a

at distinction t

greed-de

host that wants. I'm a

eep note in his voice. "

a plucky woman.

aughe

o you

could have taken this farm and

, I've got plenty of pluck of that kind. But I am often scared, d

of w

n't k

eed, that she would often seem to turn the talk upon herself, only to cut it short again immediately. She offered him openings, and then he could make nothing of them;

the walk had draw

at the little

again-I want you to

an

she said alm

'll write! But you'll come

er! Why, there's a month. You'll

room, listening to the retreating rush of his motor-cyc

in love with h

her mind was identical with that sudden misgiving of the afternoon, when on E

s no mere passing qualm. It had grown

*

who had been lounging about the station for some time and whose appearance had attracted some attention. "See him at a distance, and you

ooking-clerk. "But right you are, when you sort of get the hang

brought by the woman and the child, though hardly his fair sh

ere in a few minutes," said a porter civilly to t

referred to walk, and they started, the woma

ey reached the first houses of the town. "There isn't scarcely a lodging or a cottage to b

winter like last, for Nina's sa

hand now, and the Boche will keep his planes at home. But as you won't listen to me, you've got to have your way,

dly looking after them they were soon lost f