o do the critical deed
of her life quite willingly, she experienced an indefinable relief at
the postponement of her meeting with Heddegan. But her manner after
making discovery of the hindrance was quiet and subdued, even to
passivity itself; as was instanced by her having, at the moment of
receiving information that the steamer had sailed, replied 'Oh', so
coolly to the porter with her luggage, that he was almost disappointed
at her lack of disappointment.

The question now was, should she return again to Mrs Wace, in the
village of Lower Wessex, or wait in the town at which she had arrived.
She would have preferred to go back, but the distance was too great;
moreover, having left the place for good, and somewhat dramatically,
to become a bride, a return, even for so short a space, would have
been a trifle humiliating.

Leaving, then, her boxes at the station, her next anxiety was to
secure a respectable, or rather genteel, lodging in the popular
seaside resort confronting her. To this end she looked about the town,
in which, though she had passed through it half-a-dozen times, she was
practically a stranger.

Baptista found a room to suit her over a fruiterer's shop; where she
made herself at home, and set herself in order after her journey.
An early cup of tea having revived her spirits she walked out to
reconnoitre.

Being a schoolmistress she avoided looking at the schools, and having
a sort of trade connection with books, she avoided looking at the
booksellers; but wearying of the other shops she inspected
the churches; not that for her own part she cared much about
ecclesiastical edifices; but tourists looked at them, and so would
she--a proceeding for which no one would have credited her with any
great originality, such, for instance, as that she subsequently showed
herself to possess. The churches soon oppressed her. She tried the
Museum, but came out because it seemed lonely and tedious.

Yet the town and the walks in this land of strawberries, these
headquarters of early English flowers and fruit, were then, as always,
attractive. From the more picturesque streets she went to the town
gardens, and the Pier, and the Harbour, and looked at the men at work
there, loading and unloading as in the time of the Phoenicians.

'Not Baptista? Yes, Baptista it is!'

The words were uttered behind her. Turning round she gave a start,
and became confused, even agitated, for a moment. Then she said in her
usual un