第44章

Maggie Tries Run Away from Her Shadow MAGGIE'S intentions, as usual, were on a larger scale than Tom had imagined.The resolution that gathered in her mind, after Tom and Lucy had walked away, was not so simple as that of going home.No! she would run away and go to the gypsies, and Tom should never see her any more.

That was by no means a new idea to Maggie: she had been so often told she was like a gypsy and `half wild' that when she was miserable it seemed to her the only way of escaping opprobrium and being entirely in harmony with circumstances, would be to live in a little brown tent on the commons:

the gypsies, she considered, would gladly receive her and pay her much respect on account of her superior knowledge.She had once mentioned her views on this point to Tom, and suggested that he should stain his face brown and they should run away together; but Tom rejected the scheme with contempt, observing that gypsies were thieves and hardly got anything to eat and had nothing to drive but a donkey.Today, however, Maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which gypsydom was her only refuge, and she rose from her seat on the roots of the tree with the sense that this was a great crisis in her life; she would run straight away till she came to Dunlow Common, where there would certainly be gypsies, and cruel Tom, and the rest of her relations who found fault with her, should never see her any more.She thought of her father as she ran along, but she reconciled herself to the idea of parting with him, by determining that she would secretly send him a letter by a small gypsy who would run away without telling where she was, and just let him know that she was well and happy, and always loved him very much.Maggie soon got out of breath with running, but by the time Tom got to the pond again, she was at the distance of three long fields and was on the edge of the lane leading to the high road.She stopped to pant a little, reflecting that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the common where the gypsies were, but her resolution had not abated: she presently passed through the gate into the lane, not knowing where it would lead her, for it was not this way that they came from Dorlcote Mill to Garum Firs, and she felt all the safer for that, because there was no chance of her being overtaken.But she was soon aware, not without trembling, that there were two men coming along the lane in front of her: she had not thought of meeting strangers - she had been too much occupied with the idea of her friends coming after her.

The formidable strangers were two shabby-looking men with flushed faces, one of them carrying a bundle on a stick over his shoulder: but to her surprise, while she was dreading their disapprobation as a runaway, the man with the bundle stopped, and in a half whining half coaxing tone asked her if she had a copper to give a poor man.Maggie had a sixpence in her pocket - her uncle Glegg's present - which she immediately drew out and gave this poor man with a polite smile, hoping he would feel very kindly towards her as a generous person.`That's the only money I've got,' she said, apologetically.`Thank you, little miss,' said the man in a less respectful and grateful tone than Maggie anticipated, and she even observed that he smiled and winked at his companion.She walked on hurriedly, but was aware that the two men were standing still, probably to look after her, and she presently heard them laughing loudly.Suddenly it occurred to her that they might think she was an idiot: - Tom had said that her cropped hair made her look like an idiot, and it was too painful an idea to be readily forgotten.Besides she had no sleeves on - only a cape and a bonnet.It was clear that she was not likely to make a favourable impression on passengers, and she thought she would turn into the fields again: but not on the same side of the lane as before, lest they should still be uncle Pullet's fields.She turned through the first gate that was not locked, and felt a delighted sense of privacy in creeping along by the hedgerows after her recent humiliating encounter.She was used to wandering about the fields by herself, and was less timid there than on the high-road.

Sometimes she had to climb over high gates, but that was a small evil;she was getting out of reach very fast, and she should probably soon come within sight of Dunlow Common, or at least of some other common, for she had heard her father say that you couldn't go very far without coming to a common.She hoped so, for she was getting rather tired and hungry, and until she reached the gypsies there was no definite prospect of bread-and-butter.