Page:Dark Hester.djvu/258

new, a strange distress. The globe had turned again; the daylight world of youth where Clive and Hester lived and struggled, moved slowly round to darkness. She was again in the sorrowful world of the Old Manor Farm and remembered the scarred heart of her friend. He was going early to-morrow morning. He had promised Hester that they should never see him again, and he would keep his promise.

Monica rose and put her feet to the ground. She felt feeble yet restored. It could not be. ‘No, it can’t be,’ she said aloud, her own childlike voice startling her as she heard it. She dressed quickly, as she had dressed that afternoon; carefully—but that she did not pause for flowers and lavender-water and forgot her gloves. She crept downstairs. The house was still. An old dark cloak hung in the hall cupboard and she wrapped it round her. The night was cloudy, moonless, the way solitary; but even if she were seen she would not be recognized. And even if she were recognized;—she felt herself smile slightly at her own indifference. All the scruples and inhibitions of the daylight world had fallen from her.

Not by the wood, she thought, as she stole out, down the path, through the gate; it was shorter by the wood but in the dark she would not find her