se who would judge and perhaps denounce him.

Nevertheless, as he dismounted at the Tower, neither the burden of
Mainstairs, nor the fear of Lydia's disapproval, nor the agitation of the
news from Duddon, had moved him one jot from his purpose. A man surely is
a coward and a weakling, he thought, who cannot grasp the "skirts of
happy chance," while they are there for the grasping; cannot take what
the gods offer, while they offer it, lest they withdraw it forever.

Yet, suppose, that by his own act, he raised a moral barrier between
himself and Lydia Penfold which such a personality would never permit
itself to pass?

His vanity, a touch of natural cynicism, refused, in the end, to let him
believe it. His hope lay in a frank wrestle with her, a frank attack upon
her intelligence. He promised himself to attempt it without delay.

XV

The day following the interview between Tatham and Faversham was a day of
expectation for the inmates of Duddon. On the evening before, Tatham with
much toil had extracted a more or less, coherent statement from Netta
Melrose, persuading her to throw it into the form of an appeal to her
husband. "If we can't do anything by reasoning, why then we must try
pressure," he had said to her, in his suavest County Council manner; "but
we won't talk law to begin with." The statement when finished and written
out in Netta's childish hand was sent by messenger, late in the evening,
within a covering letter to Faversham, written by Tatham.

Tatham afterward devoted himself till nearly midnight to composing a
letter to Lydia. He had unaccountably missed her that afternoon, for when
he arrived at the cottage from Pengarth she was out, and neither Mrs.
Penfold nor Susy knew where she was. In fact she was at Mainstairs, and
with Faversham. She had mistaken a phrase in Tatham's note of the
morning, and did not expect him till later. He had waited an hour for
her, under the soft patter of Mrs. Penfold's embarrassed conversation;
and had then ridden home, sorely disappointed, but never for one instant
blaming the beloved.

But later, in the night silence, he poured out to her all his budget: the
arrival of the Melroses; their story; his interview with Faversham; and
his plans for helping them to their rights. To a "friend" it was only
allowed, besides, to give restrained expression to his rapturous joy in
being near her again, and his disappointment of the afternoon. He thought
over every word,