urned
Romanist. No single reason would account for her revolt, which, coining
thus late, was all but as violent as that which had animated her
brother from his boyhood. Intellectual progress had something to do
with it, for on approaching with new eyes that narrow provincial life,
she could scarcely believe it had once been her own, and resented the
memory of such a past. But less worthy promptings were more strongly
operative. The Bartles folk had a certain measure of right against her;
she had ostentatiously promised them a chapel, and how was her failure
in keeping the promise to be accounted for? This justification of
theirs chafed her; she felt the ire of one who has no right to be
angry. It shamed her, moreover, to be reminded of the pretentious
spirit which was the origin of this trouble; and to be shamed by her
inferiors was to Miriam a venomed stab. Then, again, she saw no way of
revenging herself. Had she this morning possessed the power of calling
down fire from heaven, Lancashire would shortly have missed one of its
ugliest little towns; small doubt of that.

No wonder a grave old gentleman who sat opposite on the journey to
London was constrained frequently to look at her. As often as she
forgot herself, the wrathful arrogance which boiled in her heart was
revealed on her features; the strained brow, the flashing eyes, the
stern-set lips, made a countenance not often to be studied in the
railway-carriage.

It was with distinct pleasure that she found herself again in London.
Contrasted with her homes in the south, London had depressed and
discouraged her; but in this also did the visit to Bartles change her
feeling. She understood now what Ii ad determined the Spences to make
their abode once more in London. She too was in need of tonics for the
mind. The roar of the streets was grateful to her; it seemed to lull
the painful excitement in which she had travelled, and at the same time
to stimulate her courage. Yes, she could face miseries better in
London, after all. She could begin to work again, and make lofty that
edifice of anti dogmatic scorn which had now such solid foundations.

She allowed nearly a week to pass before writing to Reuben. When at
length she sent a note, asking him either to come and see her or to
make an appointment, it remained unanswered for three days; then
arrived a few hurried lines, in which he said that he had been out of
town, and was again on the point of leaving home, but