nature unfold in the warmer atmosphere of the life into which he had brought her. He kept reminding her that she was free now to follow her own devices.
âCome to me, mind, whenever you want money,â he told her. âYou can have all the money you want within reason. And thereâs no need for you to do any work, remember. Just please yourself. Donât forget youâre mistress here.â
And it would certainly have pleased the old man best if Kate had consented to become an idle, luxurious creature, a thing apart from the farm and sacred to him alone, for he loved to treat her as something to be petted and pampered and did not see that this was the one thing in their intercourse that alienated and embarrassed her. Her dignity and restraint recoiled from the old manâs childish endearments, and Ben, finding himself thwarted, would redouble his efforts, ignorant that he was only increasing the gulf between them. Happily, such moods were only occasional. In his customary state, alert, kindly, andcheerful, Kate found old Ben a delightful companion: his natural cheeriness thawed her coldness and reserve and in his company she became cheerful and animated also. Her affection for him was real; strong enough, indeed, to make it possible for her to tolerate his love.
Little by little, both indoors and out of doors, Kate became familiar with the farm. Ben had encouraged her to pry into every hole and corner.
âGet to know the place, my dear,â he said to her. âThe more you know it, the better youâll like itâ; and Kate, feeling that she was a stranger and an intruder, had opened doors and peeped into cupboards, and sometimes Mrs. Jobson, when she had a moment to spare, would assist Kate in these researches, showing her the store-room or taking her into the linen-closet and displaying the table-linen, bed-linen, and towels, all neatly disposed upon their appointed shelves with sprigs of lavender between their folds.
âBut how beautifully itâs kept,â said Kate admiringly, and Mrs. Jobsonâs heart warmed towards her, for it was she who kept it.
Out of doors she examined hen-houses, strange-smelling and white with droppings, where she peeped into the rows of boxes, finding a large pinkish brown egg in one, a white one in another, or a sham one made of shining white pottery, to encourage the hens to lay; and sometimes, too, a great buff or black hen filling the whole box in which it crouched, whichglared at Kate with a fierce hectic eye and growled if she ventured too near.
When she went into the stables and cow-byres, the munching beasts turned their great heads and stared at her with solemn, benevolent eyes. Sometimes, going from stall to stall with George the hind, or Peter the boy whom she had happened to meet as she went about the farm, she would hear from them the names of the different horses and cows and learn gradually to recognize them when she met them in the fields or on the roads.
Once, leaving the farmyard and turning down a green lane, she came upon a gate in a high holly-hedge, and stopping to lean over it she saw that she was looking into an orchard, a beautiful half-wild and half-formal place where old twisted fruit-trees stood in rows. The trees were leafless now, but as she moved away she resolved that she would return in the spring when all the trees would be white with blossom.
But the thing that delighted Kate above everything else was the huge barn whose long thatched roof had been one of the first things that met her eye as she drove after her wedding into the farm. To enter through the great double doors and close them behind her was like entering a church, for, once inside, it seemed to her that she had left the world of every day behind her and stepped suddenly into an ancient, peaceful silent world filled with mild twilightand soft darknesses. Screens of sunlight cast from the slit between the almost closed doors or from a gap in the planking
âCome to me, mind, whenever you want money,â he told her. âYou can have all the money you want within reason. And thereâs no need for you to do any work, remember. Just please yourself. Donât forget youâre mistress here.â
And it would certainly have pleased the old man best if Kate had consented to become an idle, luxurious creature, a thing apart from the farm and sacred to him alone, for he loved to treat her as something to be petted and pampered and did not see that this was the one thing in their intercourse that alienated and embarrassed her. Her dignity and restraint recoiled from the old manâs childish endearments, and Ben, finding himself thwarted, would redouble his efforts, ignorant that he was only increasing the gulf between them. Happily, such moods were only occasional. In his customary state, alert, kindly, andcheerful, Kate found old Ben a delightful companion: his natural cheeriness thawed her coldness and reserve and in his company she became cheerful and animated also. Her affection for him was real; strong enough, indeed, to make it possible for her to tolerate his love.
Little by little, both indoors and out of doors, Kate became familiar with the farm. Ben had encouraged her to pry into every hole and corner.
âGet to know the place, my dear,â he said to her. âThe more you know it, the better youâll like itâ; and Kate, feeling that she was a stranger and an intruder, had opened doors and peeped into cupboards, and sometimes Mrs. Jobson, when she had a moment to spare, would assist Kate in these researches, showing her the store-room or taking her into the linen-closet and displaying the table-linen, bed-linen, and towels, all neatly disposed upon their appointed shelves with sprigs of lavender between their folds.
âBut how beautifully itâs kept,â said Kate admiringly, and Mrs. Jobsonâs heart warmed towards her, for it was she who kept it.
Out of doors she examined hen-houses, strange-smelling and white with droppings, where she peeped into the rows of boxes, finding a large pinkish brown egg in one, a white one in another, or a sham one made of shining white pottery, to encourage the hens to lay; and sometimes, too, a great buff or black hen filling the whole box in which it crouched, whichglared at Kate with a fierce hectic eye and growled if she ventured too near.
When she went into the stables and cow-byres, the munching beasts turned their great heads and stared at her with solemn, benevolent eyes. Sometimes, going from stall to stall with George the hind, or Peter the boy whom she had happened to meet as she went about the farm, she would hear from them the names of the different horses and cows and learn gradually to recognize them when she met them in the fields or on the roads.
Once, leaving the farmyard and turning down a green lane, she came upon a gate in a high holly-hedge, and stopping to lean over it she saw that she was looking into an orchard, a beautiful half-wild and half-formal place where old twisted fruit-trees stood in rows. The trees were leafless now, but as she moved away she resolved that she would return in the spring when all the trees would be white with blossom.
But the thing that delighted Kate above everything else was the huge barn whose long thatched roof had been one of the first things that met her eye as she drove after her wedding into the farm. To enter through the great double doors and close them behind her was like entering a church, for, once inside, it seemed to her that she had left the world of every day behind her and stepped suddenly into an ancient, peaceful silent world filled with mild twilightand soft darknesses. Screens of sunlight cast from the slit between the almost closed doors or from a gap in the planking
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