Violet Jacob > Flemington

CHAPTER X
ADRIFT
Archie rode along in a dream. He had gone
straight out of the garden, taken his horse from
the stable, and ridden back to Forfar, following
the blind resolution to escape from Ardguys
before he should have time to realize what it was
costing him. He had changed horses at the
posting-house, and turned his face along the way
he had come. Through his pain and perplexity
the only thing that stood fast was his determina¬
tion not to return to Balnillo. “ I will go now,”
he had said to Madam Flemington, and he had
gone without another word, keeping his very
thoughts within the walled circle of his resolu¬
tion, lest they should turn to look at familiar
things that might thrust out hands full of old
memories to hold him back.
In the middle of his careless life he found
himself cut adrift without warning from those
associations that he now began to feel he had
valued too little, taken for granted too much.
Balnillo was impossible for him, and in conse¬
quence he was to be a stranger in his own home.
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