breath and plunged, as it were--"you have no idea of getting married at
present?"

"No," said Caroline, speaking with fair composure, though her own
nerves began to quiver and she breathed rather quickly. For this was
what Laura had come for, then! She had heard tales and wanted to find
out if they were true.

Well--let her! For one second a great temptation assailed Caroline.
She stood there in the doorway, with the power of happiness or
unhappiness in her hands, knowing perfectly well that she had only to
tell the actual, unvarnished truth as it had actually happened for
Godfrey's chance of a rich wife, and Laura's chance of a probably
successful marriage to vanish in less time than you could open and shut
the door.

But the next moment it was all over. She knew, with a just pride, that
she could never do a mean trick like that: it was not in her. When the
room, which had gone a little dim, grew clear again, she heard herself
continuing, as if it were somebody else: "I'm sure I shall enjoy being
on my own. I'd rather keep myself than be dependent on any man. You
can do as you like. It's better than getting married."

"But nothing is better than marriage with the right man," said Laura.
She was still looking intently at Caroline; still seeming all the time
to have something behind her words which hovered but remained unspoken.
Then, suddenly her eyes filled with tears.

Caroline looked away, perplexed and troubled. "I'm afraid Mrs.
Bradford may not be in for some time."

Laura rose in a hesitating fashion. "Do you think so? Well, I suppose
I had better go. Mrs. Bradford will be glad when the sale is over.
She will be happier in a boarding-house at Scarborough."

They were at the front door now; and to avoid looking at each other
they both glanced at the man who was wheeling a barrow-load of building
implements in from the field across the place where the privet hedge
used to be.

"I suppose that is for the improvements to the Cottage?" said Laura,
who seemed as if she could not go and yet did not really want to stay.

"Yes. They begin altering the outside buildings before the sale," said
Caroline; but all the time she was asking within herself: "What is it?
What is it?"

Again they looked at the man, who was now trudging back over the
newly-laid sods.

"Poor Miss Ethel!" said Laura. "She would not have liked that, would
she?"

Caroline shook her head, not speaking--it was all so curiously