to remember that when she played about the black cinders of the hillsides
she used to stop to watch the sunlight flash along the far-away green
spaces, and in her thoughts connected them with the marvels she read of in
her books of fairy-tales. Beyond these wonderful hills were the palaces of
the kings and queens who would wave their wands and vanish! A few years
later it was among or beyond those slopes that the lovers with whom she
sympathized in the pages of her novels lived. But it was a long time since
she had read a story, and she asked herself how this was. Dreams had gone
out of her life, everything was a hard reality; her life was like a
colliery, every wheel was turning, no respite day or night; her life would
be always the same, a burden and a misery. There never could be any change
now. She remembered her marriage, and how Mrs. Ede had persuaded her into
it, and for the first time she blamed the old woman for her interference.
But this was not all. Kate was willing to admit that there was no one she
loved like Mr. Ede, but still it was hard to live with a mother-in-law who
had a finger in everything and used the house like her own. It would be all
very well if she were not so obstinate, so certain that she was always
right. Religion was very well, but that perpetual 'I'm a Christian woman,'
was wearisome. No wonder Mr. Lennox was leaving. Poor man, why shouldn't he
have a few friends up in the evening? The lodgings were his own while he
paid for them. No wonder he cut up rough; no wonder he was leaving them. If
so, she would never see him again. The thought caught her like a pain in
the throat, and with a sudden instinct she turned to hurry home. As she did
so her eyes fell on Mr. Lennox walking towards her. At such an unexpected
realization of her thoughts she uttered a little cry of surprise; but,
smiling affably, and in no way disconcerted, he raised his big hat from his
head. On account of the softness of the felt this could only be
accomplished by passing the arm over the head and seizing the crown as a
conjurer would a pocket-handkerchief. The movement was large and unctuous,
and it impressed Kate considerably.