rse she could not live away
from him if he refused to make her any allowance,--at least not for
any considerable time. He had always been liberal as regards money
since money had been plenty with him, and therefore she had some
supply with her. She had jewels too which were her own; and though,
as she had already determined, she would not part with them without
telling him what she was about to do, yet she could, if pressed, live
in this way for the next twelve months;--perhaps, with close economy,
even for a longer time than that. In her present frame of mind she
had looked forward almost with gratification to being pinched and
made uncomfortable. She would wear her ordinary and more dowdy
dresses; she would spend much of her time in reading sermons; she
would get up very early and not care what she ate or drank. In short,
she would make herself as uncomfortable as circumstances would admit,
and thoroughly enjoy her grievances.

But then this check of fifty pounds, and this offer of as much more
as she wanted when that was gone, rather took the ground from under
her feet. Unless she herself chose to give way she might go on living
in Orange Street to the end of the chapter, with every material
comfort about her,--keeping her own brougham if she liked, for the
checks she now knew would come without stint. And he would go on
living in Harley street, seeing Lady Mason as often as he pleased.
Sophia would be the mistress of the house, and as long as this was
so, Lady Mason would not show her face there. Now this was not a
course of events to which Mrs. Furnival could bring herself to look
forward with satisfaction.

All this delayed her during that day, but before she went to bed she
made up her mind that she would at any rate go down to Hamworth. Tom,
she knew, was deceiving her; of that she felt morally sure. She would
at any rate go down to Hamworth, and trust to her own wit for finding
out the truth when there.

CHAPTER L

IT IS QUITE IMPOSSIBLE

All was now sadness at The Cleeve. It was soon understood among the
servants that there was to be no marriage, and the tidings spread
from the house, out among the neighbours and into Hamworth. But no
one knew the reason of this change;--none except those three, the
woman herself who had committed the crime and the two to whom she had
told it. On that same night, the night of the day on which the tale
had been told, Lady Mason wrote a line,--almost a single line