he couldn't have done if he'd felt in the right way.'

'Yes, I understand,' Thyrza mused. She added: 'He's still not married?'

'No.'

'Why not?--Lyddy, I don't believe they ever will be married.'

'And I don't either, dear.'

Thyrza looked quickly at her sister. Lydia was again playing with
pebbles, not quite smiling, but nearly.

'You don't. Then what has happened? Won't you tell me?'

'I don't think they suit each other.'

'But there's something else, I'm sure there is. You said, 'And I don't
either,' in such a queer way. How do you know they don't suit each
other?'

'Since grandad's death, you know, I've often been to Mrs. Poole's. She
tells me things sometimes. You mustn't think I ever ask, Thyrza. You
know that isn't my way. But Mrs. Poole often speaks about her brother.
Only two days ago, she told me he wasn't going to marry Totty.'

'Really? And I don't think you'd have said a word about it if I hadn't
made you. It's broken off for good?'

'I believe it is.'

Neither spoke for a while. Then Thyrza said:

'I suppose you see Mr. Ackroyd sometimes at the house?'

'Sometimes,' the other replied, heedlessly.

'Does he talk to you, Lyddy?'

'A little. Just a little, sometimes.'

'But _why_ has he broken off with Totty? What does Totty say about it?'

'I believe she was the first to ask him to break off. I met her a week
ago, and she looked very jolly, as if something good had happened to
her. I suppose she's glad to be free again.'

'How queer it all is, Lyddy! Now you might mention things like this in
your letters. If there's anything else of the same kind happens,
remember you tell me.'

'I don't see how there can be. Unless they begin over again.'

'Well, mind you tell me if they do--and if they don't.'

On the second day of Lydia's visit, they heard from The Chestnuts that
Bessie Bunce was dead. She had died suddenly, and just when she seemed
to be in better health than for years.

Thyrza, speaking of the event with Lydia, said gravely:

'I can't feel sorry. It's a good thing to die like that, with no pain
and no looking forward.'

'Oh, do you think so, Thyrza? There's something dreadful in the
suddenness to me.'

'To me it's just the opposite. I'm afraid of death. I don't think I
could sit by anybody that was dying. I hope, I hope I may die in that
way!'

Lydia was shocked, and wondered grieving.

CHAPTER XXXIV

A LOAN ON SECURITY

Yet again it was summer-time, the