uch trouble.

In spite of herself her attention flagged from the hard, dull book; the
spirit of the place was too strong for her, and, as in summers gone by,
she was lost in vision. But not with eyes like these had she been
wont to dream on the green branches or on the sward that lay deep in
sunlight. On her raised lids sat the heaviness of mourning; she seemed
to strain her sight to something very far off, something which withdrew
itself from her desire, upon which her soul called and called in vain.
Her cheeks showed their thinness, her brow foretold the lines which
would mark it when she grew old. It was a sob in her throat which called
her back to consciousness, a sob which her lips, well-trained warders,
would not allow to pass.

She forced herself to the book again, and for some minutes plied her
dictionary with feverish zeal. Then there came over her countenance a
strange gleam of joy, as if she triumphed in self-conquest. She smiled
as she continued her work, clearly making a happiness of each mastered
sentence. And, looking up with the smile still fixed, she found that her
solitude was invaded. Letty Tew had just appeared round the rock which
sheltered the green haven.

'You here, Adela?' the girl exclaimed. 'How strange!'

'Why strange, Letty?'

'Oh, only because I had a sort of feeling that perhaps I might meet you.
Not here, particularly,' she added, as if eager to explain herself, 'but
somewhere in the wood. The day is so fine; it tempts one to walk about.'

Letty did not approach her friend as she would have done when formerly
they met here. Her manner was constrained, almost timid; it seemed an
afterthought when she bent forward for the kiss. Since Adela's marriage
the intercourse between them had been comparatively slight. For the
first three months they had seen each other only at long intervals, in
part owing to circumstances. After the fortnight she spent in London at
the time of her marriage, Adela had returned to Wanley in far from her
usual state of health; during the first days of February there had been
a fear that she might fall gravely ill. Only in advanced spring had she
begun to go beyond the grounds of the Manor, and it was still unusual
for her to do so except in her carriage. Letty had acquiesced in the
altered relations; she suffered, and for various reasons, but did not
endeavour to revive an intimacy which Adela seemed no longer to desire.
Visits to the Manor were from the first d