but his own two thousand pounds he would have; and
two or three hundred on the spot by way of instalment. And, with these
hard views, he drew near to Hernshaw; but the nearer he got, the slower
he went; for what at a distance had seemed tolerably easy began to get
more and more difficult and repulsive. Moreover, his heart, which he
thought he had steeled, began now to flutter a little, and somehow to
shudder at the approaching interview.

CHAPTER XXX.

Caroline Ryder went to the gate of the Grove, and stayed there two
hours; but, of course, no Griffith came.

She returned the next night, and the next; and then she gave it up, and
awaited an explanation. None came, and she was bitterly disappointed,
and indignant.

She began to hate Griffith, and to conceive a certain respect, and even
a tepid friendship, for the other woman he had insulted.

Another clew to this change of feeling is to be found in a word she let
drop in talking to another servant. "My mistress," said she, "bears it
_like a man_."

In fact, Mrs. Gaunt's conduct at this period was truly noble.

She suffered months of torture, months of grief; but the high-spirited
creature hid it from the world, and maintained a sad but high composure.

She wore her black, for she said, "How do I know he is alive?" She
retrenched her establishment, reduced her expenses two thirds, and
busied herself in works of charity and religion.

Her desolate condition attracted a gentleman who had once loved her, and
now esteemed and pitied her profoundly,--Sir George Neville.

He was still unmarried, and she was the cause; so far at least as this:
she had put him out of conceit with the other ladies at that period when
he had serious thoughts of marriage: and the inclination to marry at all
had not since returned.

If the Gaunts had settled at Boulton, Sir George would have been their
near neighbor; but Neville's Court was nine miles from Hernshaw Castle:
and when they met, which was not very often, Mrs. Gaunt was on her guard
to give Griffith no shadow of uneasiness. She was therefore rather more
dignified and distant with Sir George than her own inclination and his
merits would have prompted; for he was a superior and very agreeable
man.

When it became quite certain that her husband had left her, Sir George
rode up to Hernshaw Castle, and called upon her.

She begged to be excused from seeing him.

Now Sir George was universally courted, and this rather nettle