And don't let anything make you so, either.' 'I won't, papa,' she cried, with a serene brightness that pleased him.
Certainly Mr.Swancourt must have been far from thinking that the brightness came from an exhilarating intention to hold back no longer from the mad action she had planned.
In the evening he drove away towards Stratleigh, quite alone.

It was an unusual course for him.

At the door Elfride had been again almost impelled by her feelings to pour out all.
'Why are you going to Stratleigh, papa ?' she said, and looked at him longingly.
'I will tell you to-morrow when I come back,' he said cheerily; 'not before then, Elfride.

Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, and so far will I trust thee, gentle Elfride.' She was repressed and hurt.
'I will tell you my errand to Plymouth, too, when I come back,' she murmured.
He went away.

His jocularity made her intention seem the lighter, as his indifference made her more resolved to do as she liked.
It was a familiar September sunset, dark-blue fragments of cloud upon an orange-yellow sky.