e I was
obliged for very weariness to slacken my pace. I kept wishing--oh! how
fervently wishing I had never committed that blunder; that the one
little half-hour's indiscretion could be blotted out. Alternating with
this was anger against Holdsworth; unjust enough, I dare say. I suppose
I stayed in that solitary place for a good hour or more, and then I
turned homewards, resolving to get over the telling Phillis at the
first opportunity, but shrinking from the fulfilment of my resolution
so much that when I came into the house and saw Phillis (doors and
windows open wide in the sultry weather) alone in the kitchen, I became
quite sick with apprehension. She was standing by the dresser, cutting
up a great household loaf into hunches of bread for the hungry
labourers who might come in any minute, for the heavy thunder-clouds
were overspreading the sky. She looked round as she heard my step.

'You should have been in the field, helping with the hay,' said she, in
her calm, pleasant voice. I had heard her as I came near the house
softly chanting some hymn-tune, and the peacefulness of that seemed to
be brooding over her now.

'Perhaps I should. It looks as if it was going to rain.

'Yes; there is thunder about. Mother has had to go to bed with one of
her bad headaches. Now you are come in--

'Phillis,' said I, rushing at my subject and interrupting her, 'I went
a long walk to think over a letter I had this morning--a letter from
Canada. You don't know how it has grieved me. I held it out to her as I
spoke. Her colour changed a little, but it was more the reflection of
my face, I think, than because she formed any definite idea from my
words. Still she did not take the letter. I had to bid her to read it,
before she quite understood what I wished. She sate down rather
suddenly as she received it into her hands; and, spreading it on the
dresser before her, she rested her forehead on the palms of her hands,
her arms supported on the table, her figure a little averted, and her
countenance thus shaded. I looked out of the open window; my heart was
very heavy. How peaceful it all seemed in the farmyard! Peace and
plenty. How still and deep was the silence of the house! Tick-tick went
the unseen clock on the wide staircase. I had heard the rustle once,
when she turned over the page of thin paper. She must have read to the
end. Yet she did not move, or say a word, or even sigh. I kept on
looking out of the window, my hands in