gust, deterred him from seeing the girl. His
wife, however, had herself visited Trotter's Buildings, and had seen
Carry, taking to her a little present from her mother, who did not
dare to go over to Salisbury to see her child, because of words that
had passed between her and her husband.

Mrs. Fenwick, on her return home, had reported that Carry was silent,
sullen, and idle; that her only speech was an expression of a wish
that she was dead, and that Mrs. Stiggs had said that she could get
no good of her. In the meantime Sam Brattle had not yet turned up,
and the 5th of June was at hand.

Mary Lowther was again at the vicarage, and of course it was
necessary that she and Mr. Gilmore should meet each other. A promise
had been made to her that no advice should be pressed upon her,--the
meaning of which, of course, was that nothing should be said to her
urging her to marry Mr. Gilmore. But it was of course understood by
all the parties concerned that Mr. Gilmore was to be allowed to come
to the house; and, indeed, this was understood by the Fenwicks to
mean almost as plainly that she would at least endeavour to bring
herself to accept him when he did come. To Mary herself, as she made
the journey, the same meaning seemed to be almost inevitable; and as
she perceived this, she told herself that she had been wrong to leave
home. She knew,--she thought she knew,--that she must refuse him, and
in doing so would simply be making fresh trouble. Would it not have
been better for her to have remained at Loring,--to have put herself
at once on a par with her aunt, and have commenced her life of
solitary spinsterhood and dull routine? But, then, why should she
refuse him? She endeavoured to argue it out with herself in the
railway carriage. She had been told that Walter Marrable would
certainly marry Edith Brownlow, and she believed it. No doubt it was
much better that he should do so. At any rate, she and Walter were
separated for ever. When he wrote to her, declaring his purpose
of remaining in England, he had said not a word of renewing his
engagement with her. No doubt she loved him. About that she did not
for a moment endeavour to deceive herself. No doubt, if that fate in
life which she most desired might be hers, she would become the wife
of Walter Marrable. But that fate would not be hers, and then there
arose the question whether, on that account, she was unfit to be the
wife of any other man. Of this she was quite certa