e of Justine Brent's words,
and also of his own feeling that, at this juncture, a break between
himself and Bessy would be final.

He stayed on accordingly, enduring as best he might the mute observation
of the household, and the gentle irony of Mr. Langhope's attentions; and
before he left Lynbrook, two days later, a provisional understanding had
been reached.

His wife proved more firm than he had foreseen in her resolve to regain
control of her income, and the talk between them ended in reciprocal
concessions, Bessy consenting to let the town house for the winter and
remain at Lynbrook, while Amherst agreed to restrict his improvements at
Westmore to such alterations as had already been begun, and to reduce
the expenditure on these as much as possible. It was virtually the
defeat of his policy, and he had to suffer the decent triumph of the
Gaineses, as well as the bitterer pang of his foiled aspirations. In
spite of the opposition of the directors, he had taken advantage of
Truscomb's resignation to put Duplain at the head of the mills; but the
new manager's outspoken disgust at the company's change of plan made it
clear that he would not remain long at Westmore, and it was one of the
miseries of Amherst's situation that he could not give the reasons for
his defection, but must bear to figure in Duplain's terse vocabulary as
a "quitter." The difficulty of finding a new manager expert enough to
satisfy the directors, yet in sympathy with his own social theories,
made Amherst fear that Duplain's withdrawal would open the way for
Truscomb's reinstatement, an outcome on which he suspected Halford
Gaines had always counted; and this possibility loomed before him as the
final defeat of his hopes.

Meanwhile the issues ahead had at least the merit of keeping him busy.
The task of modifying and retrenching his plans contrasted drearily with
the hopeful activity of the past months, but he had an iron capacity for
hard work under adverse conditions, and the fact of being too busy for
thought helped him to wear through the days. This pressure of work
relieved him, at first, from too close consideration of his relation to
Bessy. He had yielded up his dearest hopes at her wish, and for the
moment his renunciation had set a chasm between them; but gradually he
saw that, as he was patching together the ruins of his Westmore plans,
so he must presently apply himself to the reconstruction of his married
life.

Before leaving Ly