"Of myself," said he, and his face grew dark.
"That's a true word!" Elwood involuntarily exclaimed. He then caught Lucy's eye, and awkwardly added: "It's about what we all want, I take it."
Joseph recovered himself in a moment, and proposed looking over the work. They walked slowly along the embankment, listening to Elwood's account of what had been done and what was yet to do, when the Hopeton carriage came up the highway, near at hand. Mrs. Hopeton sat in it alone.
"I was looking for you, Lucy," she called. "If you are going towards the cutting, I will join you there."
She sent the coachman home with the carriage, and walked with them on the track. Joseph felt her presence as a relief, but Elwood confessed to himself that he was a little disturbed by the steady glance of her dark eyes. He had already overcome his regret at the interruption of his rare and welcome chance of talking with Lucy, but then Joseph knew his heart, while this stately lady looked as if she were capable of detecting what she had no right to know. Nevertheless, she was Lucy's friend, and that fact had great weight with Elwood.
"It's rather a pity to cut into the hills and bank up the meadows in this way, isn't it?" he asked.
"And to disturb my school with so much hammering," Lucy rejoined; "when the trains come I must retreat."
"None too soon," said Mrs. Hopeton. "You are not strong, Lucy, and the care of a school is too much for you."
Elwood thanked her with a look, before he knew what he was about.
"After all," said Joseph, "why shouldn't nature be cut up? I suppose everything was given up to us to use, and
