At last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbing up-hill, and presently there seemed to be no more hedges and no more trees. She could see nothing, in fact, but a dense darkness on either side. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the window just as the carriage gave a big jolt.
"Eh! We're on the moor now sure enough," said Mrs. Medlock.
The carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road which seemed to be cut through bushes and low-growing things which ended in the great expanse of dark apparently spread out before and around them. A wind was rising and making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound.
"It'sโit's not the sea, is it?" said Mary, looking round at her companion.
"No, not it," answered Mrs. Medlock. "Nor it isn't fields nor mountains, it's just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep."
"I don't like it," said Mary. "I don't like it," and she pinched her thin lips more tightly together.
"Don't you?" said Mrs. Medlock. "Many a one does, though. It sounds lonely sometimes, but in spring and summer when the broom and gorse is out, you'd think all that gold spread over the moor was like sunshine. It smells lovely sweet, and there's such a lot of fresh airโand the sky looks so high."
Mary said nothing. She had heard the wind whistling through the bushes. It made a strange, wild sound. She was not accustomed to an out-of-door world. She had always lived in a house, and at that in a hot country where the air had been very still. The drive across the dark unknown moor made her shiver a little.
"It is a very strange place," she said in a low voice, almost to herself.
"Aye, that it is," agreed Mrs. Medlock cheerfully, and she began to laugh comfortably. "But you'll get used to it. There's hundreds of rooms in it, though most of 'em's shut up and locked. And there's gardens that are lockedโqueer gardens they are. There's been many a disagreement over 'em. Mr. Craven, he won't let anyone go near 'em, and he won't let anyone talk of 'em neither."