His look
might have been suggested by the sight that he had witnessed from
his window on the last occasion of her visit, for it partook of the
nature of concern. The old man was afraid of his nephew, physically
and morally, and he began to regard Anne as a fellow-sufferer under
the same despot. After this sly and curious gaze at her he withdrew
his eye again, so that when she casually lifted her own there was
nothing visible but his keen bluish profile as before.
When the reading was about half-way through, the door behind them
opened, and footsteps crossed the threshold. The farmer diminished
perceptibly in his chair, and looked fearful, but pretended to be
absorbed in the reading, and quite unconscious of an intruder. Anne
felt the presence of the swashing Festus, and stopped her reading.
'Please go on, Miss Anne,' he said, 'I am not going to speak a
word.' He withdrew to the mantelpiece and leaned against it at his
ease.
'Go on, do ye, maidy Anne,' said Uncle Benjy, keeping down his
tremblings by a great effort to half their natural extent.
Anne's voice became much lower now that there were two listeners,
and her modesty shrank somewhat from exposing to Festus the
appreciative modulations which an intelligent interest in the
subject drew from her when unembarrassed. But she still went on
that he might not suppose her to be disconcerted, though the ensuing
ten minutes was one of disquietude. She knew that the bothering
yeoman's eyes were travelling over her from his position behind,
creeping over her shoulders, up to her head, and across her arms and
hands.
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