The dull sky soon began to tell its meaning by sending down
herald-drops of rain, and the stagnant air of the day changed into
a fitful breeze which played about their faces. The quick-silvery
glaze on the rivers and pools vanished; from broad mirrors of light
they changed to lustreless sheets of lead, with a surface like a
rasp. But that spectacle did not affect her preoccupation. Her
countenance, a natural carnation slightly embrowned by the season,
had deepened its tinge with the beating of the rain-drops; and her
hair, which the pressure of the cows' flanks had, as usual, caused to
tumble down from its fastenings and stray beyond the curtain of her
calico bonnet, was made clammy by the moisture, till it hardly was
better than seaweed.
"I ought not to have come, I suppose," she murmured, looking at the
sky.
"I am sorry for the rain," said he. "But how glad I am to have you
here!"
Remote Egdon disappeared by degree behind the liquid gauze. The
evening grew darker, and the roads being crossed by gates, it was
not safe to drive faster than at a walking pace. The air was rather
chill.
"I am so afraid you will get cold, with nothing upon your arms and
shoulders," he said.
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