Not that I was in the way to become affianced to a maid, who
had my path to cut in the world, but I feared that if I delayed to make
sure of her affection my brother would be before me with her father,
and Lily might yield to that to which she would not yield if once we had
plighted troth.
Now it chanced that on this afternoon I was hard put to it to escape to
my tryst, for my master, the physician, was ailing, and sent me to visit
the sick for him, carrying them their medicines. At the last, however,
between four and five o'clock, I fled, asking no leave. Taking the
Norwich road I ran for a mile and more till I had passed the Manor House
and the church turn, and drew near to Ditchingham Park. Then I dropped
my pace to a walk, for I did not wish to come before Lily heated and
disordered, but rather looking my best, to which end I had put on my
Sunday garments. Now as I went down the little hill in the road that
runs past the park, I saw a man on horseback who looked first at the
bridle-path, that at this spot turns off to the right, then back across
the common lands towards the Vineyard Hills and the Waveney, and then
along the road as though he did not know which way to turn. I was quick
to notice things--though at this moment my mind was not at its swiftest,
being set on other matters, and chiefly as to how I should tell my tale
to Lily--and I saw at once that this man was not of our country.
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