CHAPTER XX
ON THE DOWNS
They went up by the steep chalk road which skirts the park wall to thetop of the conical hill above the race-course. An escarpment of grassbanks guards a hollow like a shallow crater on the very summit. They roderound it upon the rim, now facing the black slope of Charlton Forestacross the valley to the north, now looking out over the plain andChichester. Thirty miles away above the sea the chalk cliffs of the Isleof Wight gleamed under their thatch of dark turf. It was not yet nine inthe morning. Later the day would climb dustily to noon; now it had thewonder and the stillness of great beginnings. A faint haze like a veil atthe edges of the sky and a freshness of the air made the world magical tothese two who rode high above weald and sea. Stella looked downwards tothe silver flash of the broad water west of Chichester spire.
"That way they came, perhaps on a day like this," she said slowly, "thoseold centurions."
"Your thoughts go back," said Dick Hazlewood with a laugh.
"Not so far as you think," cried Stella, and suddenly her cheekstook fire and a smile dimpled them. "Oh, I dare to think of manythings to-day."
She rode down the steep grass slope towards the race-course with Dick ather side. It was the first morning they had ridden together since thenight of the dinner-party at Little Beeding. Mr. Hazlewood was at thismoment ordering his car so that he might drive in to the town and learnwhat Pettifer had discovered in the cuttings from the newspapers. Butthey were quite unaware of the plot which was being hatched against them.They went forward under the high beech-trees watching for the great rootswhich stretched across their path, and talking little. An open waybetween wooden posts led them now on to turf and gave them the freedom ofthe downs. They saw no one. With the larks and the field-fares they hadthe world to themselves; and in the shade beneath the hedges the dewstill sparkled on the grass. They left the long arm of Halnaker Down upontheir right, its old mill standing up on the edge like some lighthouse ona bluff of the sea, and crossing the high road from Up-Waltham rode alonga narrow glade amongst beeches and nut-trees and small oaks and bushes ofwild roses. Open spaces came again; below them were the woods and thegreen country of Slindon and the deep grass of Dale Park. And so theydrew near to Gumber Corner where Stane Street climbs over Bignor Hill.Here Dick Hazlewood halted.
"I suppose we turn."
"Not to-day," said Stella, and Dick turned to her with surprise. Alwaysbefore they had stopped at this point and always by Stella's wish. Eithershe was tired or was needed at home or had letters to write--alwaysthere had been some excuse and no reason. Dick Hazlewood had come tobelieve that she would not pass this point, that the down land beyond wasa sort of Tom Tiddler's ground on which she would not trespass. He hadwondered why, but his instinct had warned him from questions. He hadalways turned at this spot immediately, as if he believed the excusewhich she had ready.
Stella noticed the surprise upon his face; and the blushes rose again inher cheeks.
"You knew that I would not go beyond," she said.
"Yes."
"But you did not know why?" There was a note of urgency in her voice.
"I guessed," he said. "I mean I played with guesses--oh not seriously,"and he laughed. "There runs Stane Street from Chichester to London andthrough London to the great North Wall. Up that road the Romans marchedand back by that road they returned to their galleys in the water thereby Chichester. I pictured you living in those days, a Boadicea of theWeald who had set her heart, against her will, on some dashing captainof old Rome camped here on the top of Bignor Hill. You crept from yourown people at night to meet him in the lane at the bottom. Then cameweek after week when the street rang with the tramp of soldiersreturning from London and Lichfield and the North to embark in theirboats for Gaul and Rome."
"They took my captain with them?" cried Stella, laughing with him atthe conceit.
"Yes, so my fable ran. He pined for the circus and the theatre and thepainted ladies, so he went willingly."
"The brute," cried Stella. "And so I broke my heart over a decadentphilanderer in a suit of bright brass clothes and remember it thirteenhundred years afterwards in another life! Thank you, Captain Hazlewood!"
"No, you don't actually remember it, Stella, but you have a feeling thatround about Stane Street you once suffered great humiliation andunhappiness." And suddenly Stella rode swiftly past him, but in a momentshe waited for him and showed him a face of smiles.
"You see I have crossed Stane Street to-day, Dick," she said. "We'll rideon to Arundel."
"Yes," answered Dick, "my story won't do," and he remembered a sentenceof hers spoken an hour and a half ago: "My thoughts do not go back as faras you think."
At all events she was emancipated to-day, for they rode on until at theend of a long gentle slope the great arch of the gate into Arundel Parkgleamed white in a line of tall dark trees.