nd if he had not found me out it
would have lasted all my days.'

'But he did find you out.'

'He did. And I'll lay the cloth immediately.'

Mrs. Wake went back to the kitchen, and Christine began to bustle about.
She greatly enjoyed preparing this table for Nicholas and herself with
her own hands. She took artistic pleasure in adjusting each article to
its position, as if half an inch error were a point of high importance.
Finally she placed the two candles where they were to stand, and sat down
by the fire.

Mrs. Wake re-entered and regarded the effect. 'Why not have another
candle or two, ma'am?' she said. ''Twould make it livelier. Say four.'

'Very well,' said Christine, and four candles were lighted. 'Really,'
she added, surveying them, 'I have been now so long accustomed to little
economies that they look quite extravagant.'

'Ah, you'll soon think nothing of forty in his grand new house! Shall I
bring in supper directly he comes, ma'am?'

'No, not for half an hour; and, Mrs. Wake, you and Betsy are busy in the
kitchen, I know; so when he knocks don't disturb yourselves; I can let
him in.'

She was again left alone, and, as it still wanted some time to Nicholas's
appointment, she stood by the fire, looking at herself in the glass over
the mantel. Reflectively raising a lock of her hair just above her
temple she uncovered a small scar. That scar had a history. The
terrible temper of her late husband--those sudden moods of irascibility
which had made even his friendly excitements look like anger--had once
caused him to set that mark upon her with the bezel of a ring he wore. He
declared that the whole thing was an accident. She was a woman, and kept
her own opinion.

Christine then turned her back to the glass and scanned the table and the
candles, shining one at each corner like types of the four Evangelists,
and thought they looked too assuming--too confident. She glanced up at
the clock, which stood also in this room, there not being space enough
for it in the passage. It was nearly seven, and she expected Nicholas at
half-past. She liked the company of this venerable article in her lonely
life: its tickings and whizzings were a sort of conversation. It now
began to strike the hour. At the end something grated slightly. Then,
without any warning, the clock slowly inclined forward and fell at full
length upon the floor.

The crash brought the farmer's wife rushing into the room. Chr