It was not Betty Vanderpoel who was walking along the white
road, but another creature--a girl whose brain was full of abnormal
thought, and whose whole being made passionate outcry against the thing
which was being slowly forced upon her. If the bell tolled--suddenly,
the whole world would be swept clean of life--empty and clean. If the
bell tolled.
Before the entrance of the Court she saw, as she approached it, the
vicarage pony carriage, standing as it had stood on the day she had
returned from her walk on the marshes. She felt it quite natural that it
should be there. Mrs. Brent always seized upon any fragment of news,
and having seized on something now, she had not been able to resist the
excitement of bringing it to Lady Anstruthers and her sister.
She was in the drawing-room with Rosalie, and was full of her subject
and the emotion suitable to the occasion. She had even attained a
certain modified dampness of handkerchief. Rosalie's handkerchief,
however, was not damp. She had not even attempted to use it, but sat
still, her eyes brimming with tears, which, when she saw Betty, brimmed
over and slipped helplessly down her cheeks.
"Betty!" she exclaimed, and got up and went towards her, "I believe you
have heard.
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