the trouble which still hung above her seemed to impose
silence. She was never quite still save when Mrs. Ormonde sat by her,
but at those times she generally kept her face averted, closing her
eyes if either of her nurses seemed to watch her. She asked no
questions. Mrs. Gandle came up occasionally, and to her Thyrza spoke
very gently and gratefully. She asked to see 'Lizabeth, and that damsel
made an elaborate toilette for the ceremony of introduction to the
transformed sickroom.

'I don't believe as she's a workin' girl at all,' 'Lizabeth remarked
mysteriously to her mother, afterwards. 'She's Mrs. Ormind's daughter,
as has runned away from her 'ome, an' that's the truth of it.'

'Don't be silly, 'Lizabeth! Why, there ain't no more likeness than in
that there cabbage!'

'I don't care. That's what I think, an' think it I always shall, choose
what!'

'You always was obstinit!'

'Dessay I was, an' it's good as some people is. It wouldn't do for us
all to think the same way; it 'ud spoil our appetites.'

One day of the week Mrs. Ormonde spent at Eastbourne. During her
absence from home no letter had come from Egremont; she expected daily
to hear from Mrs. Mapper that he had called at The Chestnuts, but
nothing was seen of him. She preferred to keep silence, though her
anxiety was constant. Out of the disparaging rumours which had found
ready credence in the circle of the Tyrrells, and the facts which she
had under her own eyes, it was not difficult for her to construct a
story whereby this catastrophe could be explained without attributing
anything more than misfortune to either Egremont or Thyrza. Her
suppositions came very near to the truth. A natural, inevitable, error
was that she imagined a scene of mutual declaration between the two.
She could only conjecture that in some way they had frequently met,
with the result which, the characters of both being understood, might
have been foreseen. Possibly Egremont had thrown aside every
consideration and had asked Thyrza to abandon Grail for his sake; in
that case, it might be that Thyrza had fled from what she regarded as
dishonourable selfishness, unable to keep her promise to Grail, alike
unable to find her own happiness at his expense.

This was supposing the best. But, as a woman who knew the world, she
could not altogether deny approach to fears which, in speaking with
Annabel, she would not glance at. It was unlike Egremont to pass
through a crisis such as