The Interloper by Violet Jacob

THE next day broke cold and stormy and driving rain sped past the / windows of the Stirks' cottage. In the morning Jimmy set out, having / decided to go afoot and to return with Gilbert in whatever vehicle he / should accomplish the last stage of his way home. As the day went on / the old woman's restlessness grew, and, by afternoon, her inaction, / while so much was pending, grew intolerable to her. She opened the back / door and looked out seawards to where a patch of ragged light broke the / flying clouds. This deceitful suggestion of mending weather decided her / on the action for which she was hankering. To Kaims she would go. / Captain Somerville might, even now, have received some word from / Cecilia, and in any case, the sight of his face would soothe her / agitated mind. Her heart was so deep in what was going on that she was / at the mercy of her own nerves so long as she was unable to act; and / to-day, there was not even her grandson to distract her mind. The man's / more enviable part was his.

It was seldom, now, that she drove herself, and it was years since she / had harnessed a horse. She wrapped her body in her thick, gray plaid, / pinning it tightly round head and shoulders, and went out to the shed / where Rob Roy was dozing peacefully in the straw, in false expectation / of a holiday. Almost before he had time to realize what she wanted, she / got him on his legs, pushed the collar over his astonished face, and / led him out across the windy yard, to where the cart stood in a / sheltered corner. In a few minutes she was turning his head towards / Kaims.