In the churchyard he sometimes tried to catch her eye and
bow to her; but he was always completely baffled in his aspirations
after a nearer communion. She was always attended from the church and
assisted into her saddle by Judge Provost, Colonel Thornton, or some
other "potent, grave and reverend seignors," who "hedged her about with
a divinity" that it was impossible, without rudeness and intrusion, to
break through. The more he was baffled and perplexed, the more eager
became his desire to cultivate her acquaintance. Had his course been
clear to woo her for his wife, it would have been easy to ask permission
of Edith to visit her at her house; but such was not the case, and
Thurston, tampering with his own integrity of purpose, rather wished
that this much coveted acquaintance should be incidental, and their
interviews seem accidental, so that he should not commit himself, or in
any way lead her to form expectations which he had no surety of being
able to meet. How long this cool and cautious foresight might avail him,
if once he were brought in close companionship with Marian, remains to
be seen. It happened one Sunday afternoon in October that he saw Marian
take leave of her venerable escort, Colonel Thornton, at the churchyard
gate, and gayly and alone turn into the forest road that led to her own
home.
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