I hate the word. It's like fittin' a
cap on me. Ye want to make one a turbaned dow'ger, ye malicious young
woman!"

"Those are personages that are, I believe, accepted in society!"

So the contest raged, Mrs. Chump being run clean through the soul twenty
times, without touching the consciousness of that sensitive essence. Mr.
Pole appeared to take the part of his daughters, and by-and-by Mrs.
Chump, having failed to arouse Mrs. Lupin's involuntary laugh (which
always consoled her in such cases), huffed out of the room. Then Mr.
Pole, in an abruptly serious way, bashfully entreated the ladies to be
civil to Martha, who had the best heart in the world. It sounded as if he
were going to say more. After a pause, he added emphatically, "Do!" and
went. He was many days absent: nor did he speak to Adela of the money she
had asked for when he returned. Adela had not the courage to allude to
it.

CHAPTER XVII

Emilia sat in her old place under the dwarf pine. Mr. Powys had brought
her back to Brookfield, where she heard that Wilfrid had been seen; and
now her heart was in contest with an inexplicable puzzle: "He was here,
and did not come to me!" Since that night when they had walked home from
Ipley Green, she had not suffered a moment of longing. Her senses had
lain as under a charm, with heart at anchor and a mind free to work. No
one could have guessed that any human spell was on the girl. "Wherever he
is, he thinks of me. I find him everywhere. He is safe, for I pray for
him and have my arms about him. He will come." So she waited, as some
grey lake lies, full and smooth, awaiting the star below the twilight. If
she let her thoughts run on to the hour of their meeting, she had to shut
her eyes and press at her heart; but as yet she was not out of tune for
daily life, and she could imagine how that hour was to be strewn with new
songs and hushed surprises. And 'thus' he would look: and 'thus.' "My
hero!" breathed Emilia, shuddering a little. But now she was perplexed.
Now that he had come and gone, she began to hunger bitterly for the sight
of his face, and that which had hitherto nourished her grew a sickly
phantom of delight. She wondered how she had forced herself to be
patient, and what it was that she had found pleasure in.

None of the ladies were at home when Emilia returned. She went out to the
woods, and sat, shadowed by the long bent branch; watching mechanically
the slow rounding and yellowing of the be