been erected in the
cemetery by families to whom the Janseniuses claimed superiority, cited
it as an example of the widower's meanness. But by other persons it was
so much admired that Trefusis hoped it would ensure the prosperity of
its designer. The contrary happened. When the mason attempted to return
to his ordinary work he was informed that he had contravened trade
usage, and that his former employers would have nothing more to say to
him. On applying for advice and assistance to the trades-union of which
he was a member he received the same reply, and was further reproached
for treachery to his fellow-workmen. He returned to Trefusis to say
that the tombstone job had ruined him. Trefusis, enraged, wrote an
argumentative letter to the "Times," which was not inserted, a sarcastic
one to the trades-union, which did no good, and a fierce one to the
employers, who threatened to take an action for libel. He had to content
himself with setting the man to work again on mantelpieces and other
decorative stone-work for use in house property on the Trefusis
estate. In a year or two his liberal payments enabled the mason to save
sufficient to start as an employer, in which capacity he soon began to
grow rich, as he knew by experience exactly how much his workmen could
be forced to do, and how little they could be forced to take. Shortly
after this change in his circumstances he became an advocate of
thrift, temperance, and steady industry, and quitted the International
Association, of which he had been an enthusiastic supporter when
dependent on his own skill and taste as a working mason.

During these occurrences Agatha's school-life ended. Her resolution to
study hard during another term at the college had been formed, not for
the sake of becoming learned, but that she might become more worthy of
Smilash; and when she learned the truth about him from his own lips, the
idea of returning to the scene of that humiliation became intolerable
to her. She left under the impression that her heart was broken, for
her smarting vanity, by the law of its own existence, would not perceive
that it was the seat of the injury. So she bade Miss Wilson adieu; and
the bee on the window pane was heard no more at Alton College.

The intelligence of Henrietta's death shocked her the more because she
could not help being glad that the only other person who knew of
her folly with regard to Smilash (himself excepted) was now silenced
forever. This