Nell, of Shorne Mills | Page 5

for there ain't
no refusin' 'ee anything!"
Nell thanked him with a smile and a grateful beam from her gray eyes,
and then, still lighter-hearted, went on to Mrs. Porter's. By great good
luck not only had the toilet vinegar arrived from London, but a copy of
the Fashion Gazette; and with these in her hand Nell went homeward.
But at the bend of the road near the cottage she paused. Mrs. Lorton
would not want the vinegar or the paper for another hour. Would there
be time to run down to the jetty and look at the sea? She slipped the
paper and the bottle in the hedge, and went lightly down the road. It
was so steep that strangers went cautiously and leaned on their sticks,
but Nell nearly ran and seemed scarcely to touch the ground; for she
had toddled down that road as a child, and knew every stone in it; knew
where to leave it for the narrow little path which provided a short cut,
and where to turn aside for the marvelous view of the tiny harbor that
looked like a child's toy on the edge of the opal sea.
Women and children came out of the cottages as she went swiftly past,
and she exchanged greetings with them; but she was in too great a
hurry to stop, and one child followed after her with bitter complaint.
She stood for a moment or two talking to some of the men mending
their nets on the jetty, called down to Dick, who was lying--he was
always reclining on something--basking in the stern of his anchored
boat; then she went, more slowly, up the hill again.

As she neared the cottage, a sound rose from the house and mingled
with the music of the stream. It was the yelp of staghounds. She
stopped and listened, and wondered whether the stag would run down
the hill, as it sometimes did; then she went on. Presently she heard
another sound--the tap, tap of a horse's hoofs. Her quick ear
distinguished it as different from the slow pacing of the horses which
drew the village carts, and she looked up the road curiously. It was not
the doctor's horse; she knew the stamp, stamp of his old gray cob. This
was a lighter, more nervous tread.
Within twenty paces of the cottage she saw the horse and horseman.
The former was a beautiful creature, almost thoroughbred, as she knew;
for every woman in the district was a horsewoman by instinct and
association. The latter was a gentleman in a well-made riding suit of
cords. He was riding slowly, his whip striking against his leg absently,
his head bent.
That he was not one of the local gentry Nell saw at the first glance. In
that first glance also she noted a certain indescribable grace, an air of
elegance, which, as a rule, was certainly lacking in the local gentry. She
could not see his face, but there was something strange, distinguished
in his attitude and the way he carried himself; and, almost
unconsciously, her pace slackened.
Strangers in Shorne Mills were rare. Nell, being a woman, was curious.
As she slowly reached the gate, the man came almost alongside. And at
that moment a rabbit scuttled across the road, right under the horse's
nose. With the nervousness of the thoroughbred, it shied. The man had
it in hand in an instant, and touched it with his left spur to keep it away
from the girl. The horse sprang sideways, set its near foot on a stone,
and fell, and the next instant the man was lying at Nell's feet.
CHAPTER II.
For a moment Nell was too startled to do anything but cry out; then, as
the man did not move, she knelt beside him, and still calling for Molly,
almost unconsciously raised his head. He had fallen on his side, but had

turned over in the instant before losing consciousness; and as Nell
lifted his head she felt something wet trickle over her hand, and knew
that it was blood.
She was very much frightened--with the exception of Dick's boyish
falls and cuts, it was the first accident at which she had "assisted"--and
she had never longed for any one as she longed for Molly. But neither
Molly nor any one else came, and Nell, in a helpless, dazed kind of
fashion, wiped the blood from the wound.
Then suddenly she thought of water, and setting his head down as
gently as she could, she ran to the stream, saturated her handkerchief,
and, returning, took his head on her lap again, and bathed his forehead.
While she was doing this she recovered her presence of mind
sufficiently to look at him with something like the desire to know what