Sink or Swim? , Volume III by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

When John Beacham, after his worse than fruitless search after his / missing wife, returned, which he at once did, to the Paddocks, Mrs. / Beacham, though by no means addicted to sudden alarms, was startled by / the change which a few short hours had wrought in his outer man. The / soft spring evening was beginning to draw in, and the scent of the / honeysuckle was filling the air, when the old lady, catching the sound / of horse's hoofs (Tom Simmons's thoughtful care for the master whom he / loved had prompted him to have Black Jenny in waiting at Switcham for / the chance of John's return), laid down the knitting which was her / unfailing occupation after dark, and stood beneath the blossoming / woodbine that Honor loved, waiting to greet her son. He rode forward / very slowly -- so slowly that Mrs. Beacham, who had been accustomed for / years to the brisk walk, verging on a trot, at which the best rider in / Sandyshire was in the habit of bringing in his horse, imagined for a / moment that it could not be really John who came at such a lingering, / lagging pace towards his home. But if the mother, who knew his ways so / well, thought that the step of her son, or rather that of his good black / steed, was strangely altered, how much greater was the shock of surprise / when, by the failing light, she looked upon John's careworn face!

Throwing himself in a listless fashion, widely different from his / accustomed energetic movements, from the saddle, he stood by the old / woman's side beneath the rustic porch, she looking up with sad inquiry / (for the suspense and worry of the last six-and-thirty hours had quelled / her spirit) into her son's dulled and altered eyes.