CHAPTER XLIV.
NOT YET.
Mrs. Galloway arose and advanced to meet her visitor with a slightly puzzled air.
"Mr." she began.
"Fergus Derrick," ended the young man. "From Riggan, madam."
She held out her hand cordially.
"Joan is in the garden," she said, after a few moments of earnest conversation. "Go to her."
It was a day very different from the one upon which Joan Lowrie had come to Ashley-Wold. Spring had set her light foot fairly upon the green Kentish soil. Farther north she had only begun to show her face timidly, but here the atmosphere was fresh and balmy, the hedges were budding bravely, and there was a low twitter of birds in the air. The garden Anice had so often tended was flushing into bloom in sunny corners, and the breath of early violets was sweet in it. Derrick was conscious of their springtime odor as he walked down the path, in the direction Mrs. Galloway had pointed out. It was a retired nook where evergreens were growing, and where the violet fragrance was more powerful than anywhere else, for the rich, moist earth of one bed was blue with them. Joan was standing near these violets,—he saw her as he turned into the walk,—a motionless figure in heavy brown drapery.
