Time passed, and the household on the Knap became again serene under the composing influences of daily routine.

A desultory, very desultory correspondence, dragged on between Sally Hall and Darton, who, not quite knowing how to take her petulant words on the night of her brother's death, had continued passive thus long.

Helena and her children remained at the dairy-house, almost of necessity, and Darton therefore deemed it advisable to stay away.
One day, seven months later on, when Mr.Darton was as usual at his farm, twenty miles from Hintock, a note reached him from Helena.

She thanked him for his kind offer about her children, which her mother-in-law had duly communicated, and stated that she would be glad to accept it as regarded the eldest, the boy.

Helena had, in truth, good need to do so, for her uncle had left her penniless, and all application to some relatives in the north had failed.