'Can you wait and take me with you ?' Useless to stay longer.

As soon as the Widdowsons had departed he went up to Rhoda and silently offered his hand.

She scarcely looked at him, and did not in the least return his pressure.
Rhoda dined at Mrs.Cosgrove's, and was home again at eleven o'clock.
When the house was locked up, and the servants had gone to bed, she sat in the library, turning over a book that she had brought from her friend's house.

It was a volume of essays, one of which dealt with the relations between the sexes in a very modern spirit, treating the subject as a perfectly open one, and arriving at unorthodox conclusions.

Mrs.Cosgrove had spoken of this dissertation with lively interest.