tched the trusty servant Tupcombe
to Evershead village, close to King's-Hintock, timing his journey so that
he should reach the place under cover of dark. The emissary arrived
without notice, being out of livery, and took a seat in the
chimney-corner of the Sow-and-Acorn.

The conversation of the droppers-in was always of the nine days'
wonder--the recent marriage. The smoking listener learnt that Mrs.
Dornell and the girl had returned to King's-Hintock for a day or two,
that Reynard had set out for the Continent, and that Betty had since been
packed off to school. She did not realize her position as Reynard's
child-wife--so the story went--and though somewhat awe-stricken at first
by the ceremony, she had soon recovered her spirits on finding that her
freedom was in no way to be interfered with.

After that, formal messages began to pass between Dornell and his wife,
the latter being now as persistently conciliating as she was formerly
masterful. But her rustic, simple, blustering husband still held
personally aloof. Her wish to be reconciled--to win his forgiveness for
her stratagem--moreover, a genuine tenderness and desire to soothe his
sorrow, which welled up in her at times, brought her at last to his door
at Falls-Park one day.

They had not met since that night of altercation, before her departure
for London and his subsequent illness. She was shocked at the change in
him. His face had become expressionless, as blank as that of a puppet,
and what troubled her still more was that she found him living in one
room, and indulging freely in stimulants, in absolute disobedience to the
physician's order. The fact was obvious that he could no longer be
allowed to live thus uncouthly.

So she sympathized, and begged his pardon, and coaxed. But though after
this date there was no longer such a complete estrangement as before,
they only occasionally saw each other, Dornell for the most part making
Falls his headquarters still.

Three or four years passed thus. Then she came one day, with more
animation in her manner, and at once moved him by the simple statement
that Betty's schooling had ended; she had returned, and was grieved
because he was away. She had sent a message to him in these words: 'Ask
father to come home to his dear Betty.'

'Ah! Then she is very unhappy!' said Squire Dornell.

His wife was silent.

''Tis that accursed marriage!' continued the Squire.

Still his wife would not dispute