The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy

Miss Garland and Loveday walked leisurely to the inn and called for horse- / and-gig. While the hostler was bringing it round, the landlord, who knew / Bob and his family well, spoke to him quietly in the passage.

'Is this then because you want to throw dust in the eyes of the Black / Diamond chaps? ' (with an admiring glance at Bob's costume).

'The Black Diamond? ' said Bob; and Anne turned pale.

'She hove in sight just after dark, and at nine o'clock a boat having / more than a dozen marines on board, with cloaks on, rowed into harbour.'

Bob reflected. 'Then there'll be a press to-night; depend upon it,' he / said.

'They won't know you, will they, Bob? ' said Anne anxiously.

'They certainly won't know him for a seaman now,' remarked the landlord, / laughing, and again surveying Bob up and down. 'But if I was you two, I / should drive home-along straight and quiet; and be very busy in the mill / all to-morrow, Mr. Loveday.'

They drove away; and when they had got onward out of the town, Anne / strained her eyes wistfully towards Portland. Its dark contour, lying / like a whale on the sea, was just perceptible in the gloom as the / background to half-a-dozen ships' lights nearer at hand.

'They can't make you go, now you are a gentleman tradesman, can they? ' / she asked.

'If they want me they can have me, dearest. I have often said I ought to / volunteer.'

'And not care about me at all?'

'It is just that that keeps me at home. I won't leave you if I can help / it.'

'It cannot make such a vast difference to the country whether one man / goes or stays! But if you want to go you had better, and not mind us at / all!'

Bob put a period to her speech by a mark of affection to which history / affords many parallels in every age. She said no more about the Black / Diamond; but whenever they ascended a hill she turned her head to look at / the lights in Portland Roads, and the grey expanse of intervening sea.

Though Captain Bob had stated that he did not wish to volunteer, and / would not leave her if he could help it, the remark required some / qualification. That Anne was charming and loving enough to chain him / anywhere was true; but he had begun to find the mill-work terribly / irksome at times. Often during the last month, when standing among the / rumbling cogs in his new miller's suit, which ill became him, he had / yawned, thought wistfully of the old pea-jacket, and the waters of the / deep blue sea. His dread of displeasing his father by showing anything / of this change of sentiment was great; yet he might have braved it but / for knowing that his marriage with Anne, which he hoped might take place / the next year, was dependent entirely upon his adherence to the mill / business. Even were his father indifferent, Mrs. Loveday would never / intrust her only daughter to the hands of a husband who would be away / from home five-sixths of his time.

But though, apart from Anne, he was not averse to seafaring in itself, to / be smuggled thither by the machinery of a press-gang was intolerable; and / the process of seizing, stunning, pinioning, and carrying off unwilling / hands was one which Bob as a man had always determined to hold out / against to the utmost of his power. Hence, as they went towards home, he / frequently listened for sounds behind him, but hearing none he assured / his sweetheart that they were safe for that night at least. The mill was / still going when they arrived, though old Mr. Loveday was not to be seen; / he had retired as soon as he heard the horse's hoofs in the lane, leaving / Bob to watch the grinding till three o'clock; when the elder would rise, / and Bob withdraw to bed -- a frequent arrangement between them since Bob / had taken the place of grinder.

Having reached the privacy of her own room, Anne threw open the window, / for she had not the slightest intention of going to bed just yet. The / tale of the Black Diamond had disturbed her by a slow, insidious process / that was worse than sudden fright. Her window looked into the court / before the house, now wrapped in the shadow of the trees and the hill; / and she leaned upon its sill listening intently. She could have heard / any strange sound distinctly enough in one direction; but in the other / all low noises were absorbed in the patter of the mill, and the rush of / water down the race.

However, what she heard came from the hitherto silent side, and was / intelligible in a moment as being the footsteps of men. She tried to / think they were some late stragglers from Budmouth. Alas! no; the tramp / was too regular for that of villagers. She hastily turned, extinguished / the candle, and listened again. As they were on the main road there was, / after all, every probability that the party would pass the bridge which / gave access to the mill court without turning in upon it, or even / noticing that such an entrance existed. In this again she was / disappointed: they crossed into the front without a pause. The / pulsations of her heart became a turmoil now, for why should these men, / if they were the press-gang, and strangers to the locality, have supposed / that a sailor was to be found here, the younger of the two millers / Loveday being never seen now in any garb which could suggest that he was / other than a miller pure, like his father? One of the men spoke.

'I am not sure that we are in the right place,' he said.

'This is a mill, anyhow,' said another.