CHAPTER XXXIV 496
Sweet was that evening. My cousins, full of exhilaration, were so eloquent in narrative and comment, that their fluency covered St. John ' s taciturnity: he was sincerely glad to see his sisters; but in their glow of fervour and flow of joy he could not sympathise. The event of the day-- that is, the return of Diana and Mary-- pleased him; but the accompaniments of that event, the glad tumult, the garrulous glee of reception irked him: I saw he wished the calmer morrow was come. In the very meridian of the night ' s enjoyment, about an hour after tea, a rap was heard at the door. Hannah entered with the intimation that " a poor lad was come, at that unlikely time, to fetch Mr. Rivers to see his mother, who was drawing away."
" Where does she live, Hannah?"
" Clear up at Whitcross Brow, almost four miles off, and moor and moss all the way."
" Tell him I will go."
" I ' m sure, sir, you had better not. It ' s the worst road to travel after dark that can be: there ' s no track at all over the bog. And then it is such a bitter night-- the keenest wind you ever felt. You had better send word, sir, that you will be there in the morning."
But he was already in the passage, putting on his cloak; and without one objection, one murmur, he departed. It was then nine o ' clock: he did not return till midnight. Starved and tired enough he was: but he looked happier than when he set out. He had performed an act of duty; made an exertion; felt his own strength to do and deny, and was on better terms with himself.
I am afraid the whole of the ensuing week tried his patience. It was Christmas week: we took to no settled employment, but spent it in a sort of merry domestic dissipation. The air of the moors, the freedom of home, the dawn of prosperity, acted on Diana and Mary ' s spirits like some life-giving elixir: they were gay from morning till noon, and from noon till night. They could always talk; and their discourse, witty, pithy, original, had such charms for me, that I preferred listening to, and sharing in it, to doing