lained this clearly to Ambrose, his gardener, and to the foreman
in the house.

"It may be," said he to Ambrose, "that I shall change my mind
altogether about the place;--but as I am still in doubt, let
everything go on till Saturday."

Of course they all knew why it was that the conduct of the Squire was
so like the conduct of a madman.

He sent down a note to Mary Lowther that evening.

DEAR MARY,

I have seen Fenwick, and of course I must see you. Will
you name an hour for to-morrow morning?

Yours, H. G.

When Mary read this, which she did as they were sitting on the lawn
after dinner, she did not hesitate for a moment. Hardly a word had
been said to her by Fenwick, or his wife, since his return from the
Privets. They did not wish to show themselves to be angry with her,
but they found conversation to be almost impossible. "You have told
him?" Mary had asked. "Yes, I have told him," the Vicar had replied;
and that had been nearly all. In the course of the afternoon she
had hinted to Janet Fenwick that she thought she had better leave
Bullhampton. "Not quite yet, dear," Mrs. Fenwick had said, and Mary
had been afraid to urge her request.

"Shall I name eleven to-morrow?" she said, as she handed the Squire's
note to Mrs. Fenwick. Mrs. Fenwick and the Vicar both assented, and
then she went in and wrote her answer.

I will be at home at the vicarage at eleven.--M. L.

She would have given much to escape what was coming, but she had not
expected to escape it.

The next morning after breakfast Fenwick himself went away. "I've had
more than enough of it," he said, to his wife, "and I won't be near
them."

Mrs. Fenwick was with her friend up to the moment at which the bell
was heard at the front door. There was no coming up across the lawn
now.

"Dear Janet," Mary said, when they were alone, "how I wish that I had
never come to trouble you here at the vicarage!"

Mrs. Fenwick was not without a feeling that much of all this
unhappiness had come from her own persistency on behalf of her
husband's friend, and thought that some expression was due from her
to Mary to that effect. "You are not to suppose that we are angry
with you," she said, putting her arm round Mary's waist.

"Pray,--pray do not be angry with me."

"The fault has been too much ours for that. We should have left this
alone, and not have pressed it. We have meant it for the best, dear."

"And I have meant to do righ