Thomas Payne came opposite the house, then passed out of sight.

Barney sat with staring eyes full of miserable questioning upon the road.

Had he been to see Charlotte?
he speculated.

He had come from that direction; but Barney remembered, with a sigh of hope, that Squire Payne had a sister, an old maiden lady, who lived a half-mile beyond Charlotte.
Perhaps Thomas Payne had been to see his aunt.
[Illustration: "Thomas Payne advanced with a careless, stately swing"] All the rest of the day Barney was in an agony of doubt and unrest over the unsettled question.

He had been living lately in a sort of wretched peace of remorse and misery; now it was rudely shaken.