d as
soon as the letter was written she sent it to the post-office in the
village. She would do almost anything that Will might tell her to do,
but Captain Aylmer's money she would not take, even though Will might
so direct her. They would tell her, no doubt, among them, that the
money was her own,--that she might take it without owing any thanks
for it to Captain Aylmer. But she knew better than that,--as she
told herself over and over again. Her aunt had left her nothing, and
nothing would she have from Captain Aylmer,--unless she had all that
Captain Aylmer had to give, after the fashion in which women best
love to take such gifts.

Then, when she had done that, she was able to think of her cousin's
visit. "I knew he would come," she said to herself, as she sat
herself in one of the old chairs in the hall, with a large shawl
wrapped round her shoulders. She had just been to the front door,
with the nominal purpose of despatching her messenger thence to the
post-office; but she had stood for a minute or two under the portico,
looking in the direction by which Belton would come from Redicote,
expecting, or rather hoping, that she might see his figure or hear
the sound of his gig. But she saw nothing and heard nothing, and so
returned into the hall, slowly shutting the door. "I knew that he
would come," she said, repeating to herself the same words, over and
over again. Yet when Mrs. Askerton had told her that he would do this
thing which he had now done, she had expressed herself as almost
frightened by the idea. "God forbid," she had said. Nevertheless now
that he was there at Redicote, she assured herself that his coming
was a thing of which she had been certain; and she took a joy in the
knowledge of his nearness to her which she did not attempt to define
to herself. Had he not said that he would be a brother to her, and
was it not a brother's part to go to a sister in affliction? "I knew
that he would come. I was sure of it. He is so true." As to Captain
Aylmer's not coming she said nothing, even to herself; but she felt
that she had been equally sure on that subject. Of course, Captain
Aylmer would not come! He had sent her seventy-five pounds in lieu
of coming, and in doing so was true to his character. Both men were
doing exactly that which was to have been expected of them. So at
least Clara Amedroz now assured herself. She did not ask herself how
it was that she had come to love the thinner and the meaner of