'Next Thursday week I am going from home in a different
direction,' said her father. 'In fact, I shall leave home the
night before. You might choose the same day, for they wish to
take up the carpets, or some such thing, I think. As I said, I
don't like you to be seen in a town on horseback alone; but go if
you will.'
Thursday week. Her father had named the very day that Stephen
also had named that morning as the earliest on which it would be
of any use to meet her; that was, about fifteen days from the day
on which he had left Endelstow. Fifteen days--that fragment of
duration which has acquired such an interesting individuality from
its connection with the English marriage law.
She involuntarily looked at her father so strangely, that on
becoming conscious of the look she paled with embarrassment. Her
father, too, looked confused. What was he thinking of?
There seemed to be a special facility offered her by a power
external to herself in the circumstance that Mr. Swancourt had
proposed to leave home the night previous to her wished-for day.
Her father seldom took long journeys; seldom slept from home
except perhaps on the night following a remote Visitation. Well,
she would not inquire too curiously into the reason of the
opportunity, nor did he, as would have been natural, proceed to
explain it of his own accord. In matters of fact there had
hitherto been no reserve between them, though they were not
usually confidential in its full sense.
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