He saw Melbury and his daughter pass down a glade without looking back.
While they moved slowly through it a lady appeared on horseback in the middle distance, the line of her progress converging upon that of Melbury's.

They met, Melbury took off his hat, and she reined in her horse.

A conversation was evidently in progress between Grace and her father and this equestrian, in whom he was almost sure that he recognized Mrs.Charmond, less by her outline than by the livery of the groom who had halted some yards off.
The interlocutors did not part till after a prolonged pause, during which much seemed to be said.

When Melbury and Grace resumed their walk it was with something of a lighter tread than before.
Winterborne then pursued his own course homeward.

He was unwilling to let coldness grow up between himself and the Melburys for any trivial reason, and in the evening he went to their house.