y. In
reflecting on it, she had still a feeling of the harsh joy peculiar to
those who have exercised command with a conscious righteousness upon
wilful, sinful, and erring spirits, and have thwarted the wrongdoer.
She could only admit that there was sadness in the issue; hitherto,
at least, nothing worse than sad disappointment. The man who was her
sister's husband could no longer complain that he had been the victim
of an imposition. She had bought his promise that he would leave the
country, and she had rescued the honour of the family by paying him. At
what cost? She asked herself that now, and then her self-support became
uneven. Could her uncle have parted with the great sum--have shed it
upon her, merely beneficently, and because he loved her? Was it possible
that he had the habit of carrying his own riches through the streets of
London? She had to silence all questions imperiously, recalling exactly
her ideas of him, and the value of money in the moment when money was an
object of hunger--when she had seized it like a wolf, and its value was
quite unknown, unguessed at.

Rhoda threw up her window before she slept, that she might breathe the
cool night air; and, as she leaned out, she heard steps moving away, and
knew them to be Robert's, in whom that pressure of her hand had cruelly
resuscitated his longing for her. She drew back, wondering at the
idleness of men--slaves while they want a woman's love, savages when
they have won it. She tried to pity him, but she had not an emotion to
spare, save perhaps one of dull exultation, that she, alone of women,
was free from that wretched mess called love; and upon it she slept.

It was between the breakfast and dinner hours, at the farm, next day,
when the young squire, accompanied by Anthony Hackbut, met farmer
Fleming in the lane bordering one of the outermost fields of wheat.
Anthony gave little more than a blunt nod to his relative, and slouched
on, leaving the farmer in amazement, while the young squire stopped him
to speak with him. Anthony made his way on to the house. Shortly after,
he was seen passing through the gates of the garden, accompanied by
Rhoda. At the dinner-hour, Robert was taken aside by the farmer.
Neither Rhoda nor Anthony presented themselves. They did not appear till
nightfall. When Anthony came into the room, he took no greetings and
gave none. He sat down on the first chair by the door, shaking his
head, with vacant eyes. Rhoda took off her