t him to feel.

What on earth was the matter? Some new grievance against him, he
supposed. After the softening, the quasi-reconciliation of the day
before, his chagrin and disappointment were great. Impossible she should
know anything of his ride with Chloe! There was not a soul in that wood;
and the place was twenty miles from Heston. Again he felt the impulse to
blurt it all out to her; but was simply repelled and intimidated by this
porcupine mood in which she had wrapped herself. Better wait at least
till she was a little more normal again. He went off disconsolately to a
day's shooting.

Meanwhile, his own particular worry was sharp enough. Chloe had taken
advantage of their casual _tete-a-tete_, as she had done before on
several occasions, to claim something of the old relation, instead of
accepting the new, like a decent woman; and in the face of the
temptation offered him he had shown a weakness of which not only his
conscience but his pride was ashamed. He realized perfectly that she had
been trying during the whole autumn to recover her former hold on him,
and he also saw clearly and bitterly that he was not strong enough to
resist her, should he continue to be thrown with her; and not clever
enough to baffle her, if her will were really set on recapturing him. He
was afraid of her, and afraid of himself.

What, then, must he do? As he tramped about the wet fields and
plantations with a keeper and a few beaters after some scattered
pheasants, he was really, poor fellow! arguing out the riddle of his
life. What would Herbert French advise him to do?--supposing he could
put the question plainly to him, which of course was not possible. He
meant honestly and sincerely to keep straight; to do his duty by Daphne
and the child. But he was no plaster saint, and he could not afford to
give Chloe Fairmile too many opportunities. To break at once, to carry
off Daphne and leave Heston, at least for a time--that was the obviously
prudent and reasonable course. But in her present mood it was of no use
for him to propose it, tired as she seemed to be of Heston, and
disappointed in the neighbours: any plan brought forward by him was
doomed beforehand. Well then, let him go himself; he had been so unhappy
during the preceding weeks it would be a jolly relief to turn his back
on Heston for a time.

But as soon as he had taken his departure, Chloe perhaps would take
hers; and if so, Daphne's jealousy would be worse than eve