sort," Mannering asserted, firmly. "You
have done just what is kind, and what will help me to save the situation.
I must confess that I should not like to have been taken by surprise. You
have saved me from that. Now let us put the whole subject away for a
time. How I wish that you could stay here for a few days."

The girl smiled a little piteously.

"I ought not to have left her even for so long as this," she said. "I
must go back to-morrow morning by the first train."

He nodded. He felt that it was useless to combat her resolution.

"You and I," he said, gravely, "have both our burdens to carry. Only it
seems a little unfair that Providence should have made my back so much
the broader. Listen, Hester!"

The full murmur of the sea growing louder and louder as the salt water
flowed up into the creeks betokened the change of tide. Faint wreaths of
mist were rising up from over the shadowy marshland. Above them were the
stars. He laid his hand upon her shoulder.

"Dear child!" he said, "I think that you understand how it is that the
burden, after all, is easier for me. A man may forget his troubles here,
for all the while there is this eternal background of peaceful things."

Her hand stole into his.

"Yes," she murmured, "I understand. Don't let them ever bring you away."

CHAPTER XI

MANNERING'S ALTERNATIVE

Once again Mannering found himself in the over-scented, overheated room,
which was perhaps of all places in the world the one he hated the most.
Fresh from the wind-swept places of his country home, he found the
atmosphere intolerable. After a few minutes' waiting he threw open the
windows and leaned out. Hester was walking in the Square somewhere. He
had a shrewd idea that she had been sent out of the way. With a restless
impatience of her absence he awaited the interview which he dreaded.

Her mother's coming took him a little by surprise. She seemed to have
laid aside all her usual customs. She entered the room quietly. She
greeted him almost nervously. She was dressed, without at any rate any
obvious attempt to attract, in a plain black gown, and with none of the
extravagances in which she sometimes delighted. Her usual boisterous
confidence of manner seemed to have deserted her. Her face, without its
skilful touches of rouge, looked thin, and almost peaked.

"I am so glad that you came, Lawrence," she said. "It was very good of
you."

She glanced towards the opened windows, and he clo