Agnes Castle and Egerton Castle

“ Then suddenly Pomona stood beside them. So soft her tread that neither had heard her come.
"Lord, be good to us! the poor gentleman's mad again!" whimpered Mall, as she went down on her knees to mop.
Pomona was in a white wrapper, well starched; the wide sleeves spread out like wings. Her hair hung in one loose plait to her knees.
"You look like a monstrous beautiful great angel!" cried he. Her hand was on his pulse. He was as pleased and soothed as a naughty infant when it is lifted from its cradle and nursed. ”

“ If Pomona carried any savours beyond those of lavender and the herbs she loved, it was of good, sweet apples and fragrant, burnt sugar. But she stood in her humiliation, and felt herself more unfit for all the high company than the beasts of her farmyard.
"You must not take it unkindly, child," said Lady Julia, with her cruel little laugh and her soft voice; "but my Lord Blantyre, you see, hath ever a great distaste of all that is homely and uncomely. He hath suffered extraordinarily in that respect of late. We must humour him." ”

“ She sat much in the orchard the spring that I was born."
"Aye," he mused. "So thy mother was book-learned and fanciful!" Then briskly he asked her: "Wouldst thou not like to know my name, Pomona? Unless, indeed, you know it already?"
She shook her head.
"Why, what a woman are you! In spite of apples, no daughter of Eve at all?"
She still shoot her head, and smiling faintly: "To me it could make no difference," she said.
"Well, now you shall know," he said, "and take it to your maiden dreams. I am Rupert, Earl of Blantyre." ”

“ And with them was a very fine lady—a stranger to any of the farm, a little lady with dark hair in ringlets, and high plumes to a great hat, and a dress that shone with as many pale colours as a pigeon's breast. She sniffed, and "Oh!" cried she in very high, loud tones, pressing a vinaigrette to her nose, "can my poor brother be in such a place, "and yet alive?"
"Hush, madam!" said Lord Majendie somewhat testily, for Pomona stood in the door. "I am sure we owe naught but gratitude to this young woman." ”

“ It was but little after noon when there came a great clatter into the simple farmyard that was wont to echo to no brisker sounds than the lumbering progress of the teamsters and their wagon, or the patient steps of Pomona's dairy-cows. A great coach with four horses and running footmen had drawn up before the farm-porch. A man in dark livery, with a sleek, secret face, slipped down from the rumble, reached for a valise, and disappeared round the house. ”

“ None of the great folk know you are here."
"And you nursed me?"
"Aye."
"Was I long ill?"
"Fourteen days."
"I have been near death, have I not?"
"You have indeed!"
"And you nursed me?" he repeated again. "How did you learn such science?"
"My lord, I have loved and cared for the dumb things all my life. There was the calf that was staked——" She stopped; that laugh was torture.
"Go on, Pomona!"
"I bathed your wound in cold water over and over till the bleeding stopped, and then, when the fever came, I knew what brew of herbs would help you. ”

“ She came to him, as she had always come; and then she stood in shame before him, her long hair streaming, the tears rolling down her cheeks, her hands folded at her throat, her shapely feet gripping the ground in Julia Majendie's green silk stockings. ”

“ Why she ran, she knew not, but something drove her with a mighty urgency. Her heart beat thickly, and her breath came short, though as a rule there was no maid in the countryside that could run as she did. When she came to the foot of the hill, she paused, and there, by the bramble brake, where the firwood began, she saw, lying on the lip of the baby stream, a gauntleted grey glove. She turned into the wood.
The pine needles were soft under her feet. The pine stems grew like the pillars of a church aisle, and the air was sweeter with their fragrance than any incense that was ever burned. ”

“ And shall a man make shift with sham and hollow artifice, when he can possess truth itself? They put paint on your cheeks, my Pomona, and tricked you out in gauds, and behold, I saw how great was the true woman beside the painted doll! ”

“ And after a silence he said to her faintly, for he was still weak for such rapture—
"Lift me, my love, and let me lie awhile against your woman's heart, for never have I drawn such sweet breath as in your arms." ”

“ She placed her hand upon the heaving shoulder and looked at her friend with a singular light in her pale yet brilliant eyes. "Do you think to break a man of a fancy by such measures? 'Twould be as good as forging the ring. Nay, my sweet, I can better help thee—aye, and give thee an hour's sport besides."
And as Alethea raised questioning eyes, Julia shook her silver-fair ringlets and laughed again.
"Leave it to me," quoth she.
*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*
"Will Mistress Pomona favour the Lady Julia Majendie with her company at the Castle?" ”