Mrs.Linley made no attempt to dispute this view of the altered circumstances in home-life--but she submitted with a mind ill at ease.
Secretly fearing that Linley was suffering under Miss Westerfield's absence, she allowed herself to hope that Kitty's father would see a necessity, in his own case, for change of scene, and would accompany them to the seaside.
"Won't you come with us, Herbert ?" she suggested, when they had both agreed on the choice of a place.
His temper was in a state of constant irritation.

Without meaning it he answered her harmless question sharply.
"How can I go away with you, when we are losing by the farm, and when there is nobody to check the ruinous expenses but myself ?" Mrs.Linley's thoughts naturally turned to Randal's prolonged absence.
"What can be keeping him all this time in London ?" she said.
Linley's failing patience suffered a severe trial.
"Don't you know," he broke out, "that I have inherited my poor mother's property in England, saddled with a lawsuit?
Have you never heard of delays and disappointments, and quibbles and false pretenses, encountered by unfortunate wretches like me who are obliged to go to law?
God only knows when Randal will be free to return, or what bad news he may bring with him when he does come back." "You have many anxieties, Herbert; and I ought to have remembered them." That gentle answer touched him.

He made the best apology in his power: he said his nerves were out of order, and asked her to excuse him if he had spoken roughly.

There was no unfriendly feeling on either side; and yet there was something wanting in the reconciliation.

Mrs.Linley left her husband, shaken by a conflict of feelings.