Kitty drew back disgusted. She had never seen such a man before; he behaved as though he were king in this small world; he lacked the manners which she had come to expect in men, because the men who had visited her mother had always possessed them. He stamped his way across the courtyard, and when he had reached the door of the inn the serving maid again appeared with another glass of ale on the tray. He drank it, not quickly as he had drunk the first; he stood back, smacking his lips. His face was still purple with rage, but now the very way he stood there showed that his rage was receding. His voice floated up to her.
"Ah! That's better, eh, Moll!" He gripped the girl's shoulder roughly, and with one hand drew her to him and kissed her loudly on the mouth. The ale spilled from the glass in his other , hand. Kitty heard the girl giggle. She turned away from the I window. She no longer felt in the mood to lie on her bed and ; dream. She called for hot water, and when it came she washed the dust of the day's journey from her hands and face and went downstairs. She was hungry, and the smell of roasting meat was indeed pleasant, but as she turned the handle of the dining-room door, the landlord's wife came running towards her.
"Ma'am," she said, 'if you will but go into the parlour, in a very short time...”
The woman looked harassed; Kitty hesitated.
"I thought," she began, 'that you said it would be ready...”
"Your fellow travellers, Ma'am, are in the parlour. The moment the dining-room is.disengaged I will let you know.”
There was the sound of a chair being pushed back. A voice cried: "God damn you, Shut that door!" The door was however pulled from Kitty's grasp, and the man whom she had seen in the courtyard was standing in the doorway; he did not see Kitty immediately; he glared at the landlord's wife, who stammered: "The passengers from the coach, your Honour...”
"Passengers from the coach! Let the scum wait. I tell you I won't sit down to eat with coach passengers." He stopped for he had seen Kitty now.
"Aha!" he continued, putting a hand to his mouth to wipe away the gravy dinging there.
"Who is the lady?”
The woman said: The lady arrived with the coach this evening... the Exeter coach, your Honour.”
"The Exeter coach." His eyes were large and brown; he had been an exceptionally handsome man less than ten years ago. He turned to the host's wife.
"Come, woman!" he said, and there was a hint of laughter in his voice.
"This lady will think me churlish." He bowed to Kitty.
"You will come in. Ma'am. I should deem it an honour if you would share my table.”
Kitty noticed his hands; they were large, and dark hair grew plentifully on the backs of them. She thought of the way in which one of them had seized the not-unwilling serving maid, and she drew back into the darkness of the corridor.
"Thank you," she said, 'but I am not travelling alone. I will call my fellow travellers; we are all very hungry.”
In the parlour the matron was holding forth angrily.
"I never heard the like! We must wait because some important person is to be served first and prefers to dine alone! I would like him to know that I have mixed with the quality. Is a lady to be insulted because, having fallen on evil times so that it was necessary to sell her carriage, she must take the coach...?”
Kitty went to Darrell.
"The food is ready," she said, and they all went into the dining-room.
The man did not look up as they entered. He went on stolidly eating his dinner. The serving man brought in the joint and put it on the sideboard; the landlord appeared, and began to carve nervously.
The roast lamb was excellent, and there was no sound in the room except that made by hungry eaters. The big man had finished his dinner; he had turned his chair, and every time Kitty raised her eyes he was looking in her direction. Colour mounted her cheeks; she kept her eyes downcast, but she felt his were on her. He frightened her in a way she had never been frightened before, and she felt suddenly that to go upon a long journey alone and unprotected was something of an undertaking.
She glanced at Darrell. How handsome he was, with his rather gentle scholar's face and the love for her in his grey eyes! He was very slender, and looked almost frail when compared with the arrogant, red-faced, alarming man sitting there in pompous state alone at his table. She stole another glance in his direction. He smiled and tried to hold her eyes. She lifted her head haughtily and turned away.
She said in a whisper to Darrelclass="underline" "He seems a very coarse creature this man whom the host is so eager to please! Let us get out of here to the parlour; it will be better there.”
They went back to the parlour and sat down in the window seat. Darrell said: "This is Squire Haredon. He is in a vile temper tonight!”
"Haredon!" she said.
"George Haredon!" And she thought of her mother's playing in the graveyard with that red-faced man.
Darrell said: "You have seen him at his worst; he is in a bad temper.
His horse went lame and he has had to put up here instead of getting home as he intended. He is a good squire, but when he is in a rage he can be terrible; everyone avoids the squire when he is in a rage.”
"I should hate him, rage or no rage," she said.
The door opened and in he came.
"Bah!" he exclaimed. These inns are draughty places." His rage had left him now; he smiled at them benignly.
"Bless me, if it ain't young Grey! It is young Grey, ain't it? And the lady?”
Darrell got to his feet, but it was Kitty who spoke.
"My name is Kitty Kennedy.”
"Kitty Kennedy!" said the squire. He brought his black brows together.
"By God!" he went on.
"Is it to your Aunt Harriet that you are going?”
"It is to my Aunt Harriet.”
He slapped his thigh and laughed deeply.
"I thought I knew you. Why, my lady, you and I are not strangers.”
He towered over her, and she drew farther back in the window seat, pretending not to see the huge hand extended towards her.
"I do not think," she said with dignity, 'that you and I have met before." And she made an almost imperious sign for Darrell to take the seat beside her; there was not room for three on the window seat.
"The squire means." explained Darrell, sitting down, 'that he knows your aunt and knew your mother. That is why he does not feel you to be a stranger.”
Trust a lawyer for putting his finger right on the point!" cried George Haredon. That's right, I knew your family. Kitty. And you're Bess's girl! By God, I knew it! You've got Bess's looks.”
She resented his familiarity. She slipped her hand into Darrell's, and because of a certain fear that had come to her she held her head higher.
George Haredon leaned forward.
"I could almost believe it was Bessie herself sitting there." he murmured. He breathed heavily, excitedly, and his eyes glistened.
"I have always heard." said Kitty, coolly, 'that I much resembled my mother.”
"And, by God, whoever told you that was right!”
He was so close that she could feel the warmth of his body; a smell of spirits was on his breath, and that of horses on his clothes. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, and she did not care that he saw this.
She turned to Darrell and began to talk of the towns through which they had passed, and when George Hare-don joined in she turned the subject to that of Their fellow passengers of whom he could know nothing.
Darrell was embarrassed, for he was a good deal in awe of the squire.