It was as unusual for the older of the sisters to talk in such a light strain as it was for the younger to speak otherwise. Just then each had a reason for this reversion of their _roles_.

Further questioned as to the cause of her fear, Vaga made answer, saying,--

"You're merry, sister Sab, and I'm right glad to see you so. But what I meant isn't a matter for jest; instead, something to be really alarmed about."

"When you've told me what it is, I'll give my opinion upon it. If neither wolves nor ghosts, what can it be? Bipeds or quadrupeds?"

"Bipeds, and of the sort most to be dreaded--brutal men."

"Oh! that's it. But what men are there about here deserving to be so characterised?"

"None about here, I hope and believe. But you know, sister, what's going on all around the Forest: those mobs of lawless fellows down at Monmouth and Lydney. Suppose some of them to be coming this way and meet us?"

"I don't suppose it, and needn't. The malignants of Monmouth and Lydney are not likely to be upon this road. If they did, 'twould be at their peril. The men of Ruardean and Drybrook are of a different sort--the right sort. Should we meet any of them, though they may be a little rough in appearance, they won't be rude. No true Forester ever is to a woman, whether lady or not. That they leave to the foreign elements Sir John Wintour has brought to Lydney, and the so-called Cavaliers on the Monmouth side--those braggarts of their blood and gallant bearing, most of them the veriest sc.u.m of the country, its gamesters and tapsters, the sweepings of the alehouse and stable! Cavaliers, indeed! who know not politeness to man nor respect for woman; care neither for national honour nor social decency!"

The enlightened young lady spoke with a warmth bordering upon indignation. With truth, too, as might one of her sort now about Tories and Jingoes. But, alas! now there are but few of her sort, youthful and enthusiastic in the cause of liberty; instead, ancient maidens of wealth and t.i.tle, some of whose ancestors trod the stage playing at charity for the sake of popularity; patronising play-actors and endowing homes for strayed dogs! showing a shameless sympathy with the foul murdering Turk and his red-handed atrocities; last and latest of all, having the effrontery--impertinent as unfeminine--to counsel, ay, dictate, political action to England's people, telling them how they should cast their votes!

What a contrast between their doings and the sayings and sentiments of that young Forest girl--all that lies between the mean and the n.o.ble!

"But," she went on, in reference to the _gentlemen_ of the gaming-house and hostelry tap-room, "we needn't fear meeting them here, nor anywhere through the Forest. The Foresters--brave fellows--are for the Parliament almost to a man. Should we encounter any of them on our walk, I'll answer for their good behaviour and kind-heartedness-- something more, if knowing who we are. Father is a favourite with them for having taken their side against the usurpations of Wintour; though they liked him before that, and I'm proud of their doing so."

"Oh! so am I, Sabrina. I'm as fond of our dear Foresters as you. It isn't of them I had any fear. But, apart from all that, I think it's time we turn our steps homeward. We're surely now two miles from Hollymead; and see! the sun's hastening to go down behind the Welsh hills."

While so delivering herself, she faced round, the Welsh hills being behind their backs as they walked towards Drybrook.

"Hasten as it likes," rejoined Sabrina, "it can't get down for at least another hour. That will give us ample time to go on to the top of the hill and back to Hollymead before supper; which last, if I mistake not, is the chief cause of your anxiety to be at home."

"For shame, Sabrina! You know it isn't--the last thing in my thoughts."

Sabrina did know that; knew, also, she was not speaking her own thoughts, but using subterfuge to conceal them. It was herself had proposed the stroll she seemed so desirous of continuing. To her its termination would not be satisfactory without attaining the summit of the ridge whose slope they were ascending.

Thrown back by what her younger sister had said, but still determined to proceed, without giving the true reason, she bethought herself of one, false though plausible.

"Well, Vag," she laughingly pursued, "I was only jesting, as you know.

But there's one thing I hate to do--never could do, that's to half climb a hill without going on to its top. It seems like breaking down or backing out, and crying 'surrender,'--which our dear father has taught us never to do. Up to the summit yonder is but a step now. It won't take us ten minutes more to reach it; besides, I want to see something I haven't set eyes on for a long while--that grand valley through which meanders my namesake, Sabrina. And looking back from there, you can also feast your eyes on that in which wanders yours, Vaga, capricious like yourself. In addition," she added, not heeding her sister's shrug of the shoulders, "we'll there get a better view of a glorious sunset that's soon to be over the Hatteral Hills; and the twilight after will give us ample time to get home before the supper table be set. So, why should you hinder me--to say nothing of yourself--from indulging in a little bit of aesthetics?"

"Hinder you!" exclaimed Vaga, protestingly. "I hinder! You shan't say that."

And at the words she went bounding on upward, like a mountain antelope; not stopping again till she stood on the summit of the hill.

CHAPTER FIVE.

WAITING AND WATCHING.

Following with alacrity, Sabrina was soon again by the side of her sister. But just then no further speech pa.s.sed between them. Not that both were silent. On the crest of the ridge, treeless and overgrown with gorse, Hector had run foul of a donkey, and after a short chase was holding it at bay. With his barks were mingled cries of encouragement from his mistress, laughter, and patting of her hands, as she hounded him on. Possibly had the Forester, Neddy's owner, come up at that moment, he might not have shown the politeness for which Sabrina had given his fellows credit. But the young lady meant no harm; nor much the mastiff. If he had, there was little danger of his doing it; the creature whose ancestry came from Mesopotamia being able to take care of itself. The demonstrations of the dog--an overfed, good-natured brute-- looked as if being made either for his own amus.e.m.e.nt or that of his young mistress; while the donkey, on the defence, with teeth, and heels, seemed equally to enjoy the fun.

The elder sister, standing apart, had neither eyes nor ears for this bit of hoydenish play. If a thought, it was the fear of giving offence to the a.s.s's owner, should that individual unluckily come along. As no one came, however, she left Vaga to her vagaries, and stood intently gazing upon the landscape spread before her.

A far and varied view she commanded from that elevated spot. First, a deep, wide valley below, trending away to the right, with a tiny stream trickling adown it, and a straggling village, the houses standing apart along its banks--Drybrook. But not as the Drybrook of to-day, showing tall brick chimneys--the monoliths of our own modern time--with their plumes of grey black smoke; cinder-strewn roads running from one to the other, and patches of bare pasture between. Then it was embowered, almost buried, in trees; here and there only a spot of whitewashed walls or a quaint lead window, seen through the thick foliage. Beyond village and stream rose another ridge, with a gradual ascent up to the "Wilderness"; and still farther off--so far as to be just visible-- stretched a wide expanse of low-lying champaign country, the valley of the Severn, once the sound of a sea. As the young girl gazed upon it, the sinking sun behind her back, with the Forest highlands beginning to fling the shadows of twilight across the Severn's plain, and the white mist that overhung it, she might well have imagined the waters of ocean once more o'erflowing their ancient bed.

She neither imagined this nor thought of it; in fact saw not the fog, nor gave so much as a second glance to that valley she had professed herself so desirous of viewing. Instead, her eyes were fixedly bent upon the face of the acclivity opposite--more particularly on a riband of road that went winding up through woods from Drybrook to the "Wilderness." And still with the same look of earnest interrogation.

What could it mean?

Vaga coming up, after having finished her affair with the donkey, observed the look, and it called forth a fresh display of that persiflage she so delighted in. Hitherto Sabrina had the best of it.

Her turn now, and she took advantage of it, saying,--

"Why, sister Sab, you seem to have forgotten all about what you came here for! You're not looking at the Severn at all! Your glances are directed too low for it. And as to the glorious sunset you spoke of, that's going on behind you! Something on the road over yonder seems to be the attraction; though I can see nothing but the road itself."

"Nor I," said Sabrina, a little confused, with just the slightest spot of red again showing on her cheeks. Enough, though, to catch the eye of her suspicious sister, who archly observed,--

"Rather strange, your gazing so earnestly at it, then?"

"Well, yes; I suppose it is."

"But not if you're expecting to see some one upon it."

Sabrina started, the red on her cheeks becoming more p.r.o.nounced; but she said nothing, since now her secret was discovered, or on the eve of discovery. Vaga's next words left her no longer in doubt.

"Who is he, sister?" she asked with a sly look, and a laugh.

"Who is who?"

"He you expect to see come riding down yonder road. I take it he'll be on horseback?"

"Vaga! you're a very inquisitive creature."

"Have I not some right, after being dragged all the way hither, when I wanted to go home? If you called me a _hungry_ creature 'twould be nearer the truth. Jesting apart, I am that--quite famished; so weak I must seek support from a tree."

And with a mock stagger, she brought up against the trunk of a hawthorn that grew near.

Sabrina could not resist laughing too, though still keeping her eyes on the uphill road. It seemed as though she could not take her eyes off it. But the other quickly recovering strength, and more naturally than she had affected feebleness, once more returned to the attack, saying,--

"Sister mine; it's no use you're trying to hoodwink me. You forget that by accident I saw a letter that lately came to Hollymead--at least its superscription. Equally oblivious you appear to be, that the handwriting of a certain gentleman is quite familiar to me, having seen many other letters from the same to father. So, putting that and that together, I've not the slightest doubt that the one of last week, addressed to your sweet self, informed you that on a certain day, hour, afternoon, Sir Richard Walwyn would enter the Forest of Dean by the Drybrook Road on his way to--"

"Vaga, you're a very demon!"

"Which means I've read your secret aright. So you may as well make confession of it."

"I won't; and just to punish you for prying. Curiosity ungratified will be to you very torture, as I know."

"Oh, well! keep it close; it don't signify a bit. One has little care to be told what one knows without telling. If Sir Richard should come to Hollymead, why then six and six make a dozen, don't they?"

Sabrina turned a half-reproachful look on her tormentor, but without making reply.

"You needn't answer," the other went on. "_My_ arithmetic's right, and the problem's solved, or will be, by the gentleman spoken of making his appearance any time this day, or--Why, bless me! Yonder he is now, I do believe."