I shall have religious scruples."
She did not name this incident to John and it was some days before John
said, "Stephen is going to be a fine horseman. His grandfather bought
him a pony, a beautiful spirited animal, and Steve was at once upon his
back. Yorkshire boys take to horses, as ducks to the water. Mother says
I leaped into the saddle before I was five years old."
Jane smiled faintly at this last remark and John said no more on the
subject. He understood it to be the better way. But it had been ever
since a restless, unhappy thought below all other thoughts in Jane's
mind, and finally she had swift personal whispers and slow boring
suppositions which, if she had put them into words, would have sounded
very like, "Lucy may be disappointed yet! John might have a son of his
own. Many things happen as the clock goes round."
She was in one of these jealous moods on the morning after John had told
her he must close the mill. Then Mrs. Levy called, and asked if she
would drive with her to Brent's Farm.
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