We thought you would be terribly pained and startled." Mrs.Goddard could almost have laughed at that moment.

The excellent man had taken all this trouble in order to save her from the very thing which had already occurred on the previous night.

There was a bitter humour in the situation, in the squire's kind-hearted way of breaking to her that news which she already knew so well, in his willingness to put off telling her until the morrow.

What would Mr.Juxon say, could he guess that she had herself already spoken with her husband and had promised to see him again that very night! Forgetting that his last words required an answer, she leaned back in her chair and again folded her hands before her.

Her eyes were half closed and from beneath the drooping lids she gazed through the gathering gloom at the squire's anxious face.
"I hope you think I did right," said the latter in considerable doubt.
"Quite right.