when she had gone through with the grim farce that hung
over her, she suddenly changed her mind.

Occasionally they brought her documents to sign, and she signed them
without a question, but on the whole she treated the affair with
considerable apathy, the truth being that it was repugnant to her
mind, which she preferred to occupy with other and very different
thoughts. So she let it go. She knew that she was going to do a thing
which was dreadful to her, because she believed it to be her duty, but
she comforted herself with the reflection that she was amply secured
against all possible contingencies by her previous agreement with
George. Angela's knowledge of the marriage-law of her country and of
what constituted a legal document was not extensive.

For this same reason, because it was distasteful, she had never said
anything of her contemplated marriage to Pigott, and it was quite
unknown in the neighbourhood. Since the Miss Lee scandal and his
consequent disinheritance, nobody had visited Philip Caresfoot, and
those who took interest in him or his affairs were few. Indeed the
matter had been kept a dead secret. But on the seventh of June, being
the day previous to the ceremony, Angela went down to her nurse's
cottage and told her what was about to be done, suppressing, however,
from various motives, all mention of her agreement with George. It
added to her depression to find that Pigott was unaccountably
disturbed at the news.

"Well, miss," she said,--"Lord, to think that I sha'n't be able to
call you that no longer--I haven't got nothing in particular to say
agin it, seeing that sure enough the man's a-dying, as I has on good
authority from my own aunt's cousin, her that does the servants'
washing up at the Hall, and mighty bad she does it, begging of her
pardon for the disparagement, and so he won't trouble you for long,
and somehow it do seem as though you hadn't got no choice left in the
matter, just as though everybody and everything was a-quietly pushing
you into it. But, miss, somehow I don't like it, to be plain; a
marriage as ain't no marriage ain't altogether natural like, and in an
office, too, along with a man as you would not touch with a pair of
tongs, and that man on his last leg. I'm right down sorry if I makes
you feel uncomfortable, dearie; but, bless me, I don't know how it is,
but, when a thing sticks in my mind, I'm as bound to hawk it up as
though it were a bone in my throat."

"I don't