o one whose being was the theatre of a drama so
mysterious and tragic. Yet it was the proper thing for Albert to do,
and Albert did it perfectly, better than anybody, except possibly
Maggie.

"Those women take a deuce of a time putting their bonnets on!" Albert
exclaimed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

The women came downstairs at last. At last, to Edwin's intense relief,
every one was going. Albert went into the hall to meet the women.
Edwin rose and followed him. And Darius came as far as the door of the
dining-room. Less than twenty-four hours had passed since Edwin had
begun even to suspect any sort of disaster to his father. But the
previous night seemed an age away. The day had been interminable, and
the evening exasperating in the highest degree. What an evening! Why
had Albert and Clara and Auntie Hamps all of them come up just at
supper-time? At first they would not be persuaded! No! They had just
called--sheer accident!--nothing abnormal! And yet the whole of the
demeanour of Auntie Hamps and Clara was abnormal. Maggie herself,
catching the infection, had transformed the meal into a kind of abnormal
horrible feast by serving cold beef and pickles--flesh-meat being
unknown to the suppers of the Clayhangers save occasionally on Sundays.

Edwin could not comprehend why the visitors had come. That is to say,
he understood the reason quite well, but hated to admit it. They had
come from a mere gluttony of curiosity. They knew all that could be
known--but still they must come and gaze and indulge their lamentable
hearts, and repeat the same things again and again, ten million times!
Auntie Hamps, indeed, probably knew more than Edwin did, for she had
thought fit to summon Dr Heve that very afternoon for an ailment of her
own, and Clara, with an infant or so, had by a remarkable coincidence
called at Mrs Hamps's house just after the doctor left. "Odious,"
thought Edwin.

These two had openly treated Darius as a martyr, speaking to him in soft
and pitiful voices, urging him to eat, urging him to drink, caressing
him, soothing him, humouring him; pretending to be brave and cheerful
and optimistic, but with a pretence so poor, so wilfully poor, that it
became an insult. When they said fulsomely, "You'll be perfectly all
right soon if only you'll take care and do as the doctor says," Edwin
could have risen and killed them both with hearty pleasu