mherst
on the day of his flight from Lynbrook. He too had dreamed of escaping
from insoluble problems into the clear air of hard work and simple
duties; and she remembered the words with which she had turned him back.
The cases, of course, were not identical, since he had been flying in
anger and wounded pride from a situation for which he was in no wise to
blame; yet, if even at such a moment she had insisted on charity and
forbearance, how could she now show less self-denial than she had
exacted of him?

"If you go away for a time, surely it ought to be in such a way that
your going does not seem to cast any reflection on Bessy...." That was
how she had put it to him, and how, with the mere change of a name, she
must now, for reasons as cogent, put it to herself. It was just as much
a part of the course she had planned to return to her husband now, and
take up their daily life together, as it would, later on, be her duty to
drop out of that life, when her doing so could no longer involve him in
the penalty to be paid.

She stood a little while looking at the bench on which they had sat, and
giving thanks in her heart for the past strength which was now helping
to build up her failing courage: such a patchwork business are our best
endeavours, yet so faithfully does each weak upward impulse reach back a
hand to the next.

* * * * *

Justine's explanation of her visit to Mr. Langhope was not wholly
satisfying to her husband. She did not conceal from him that the scene
had been painful, but she gave him to understand, as briefly as
possible, that Mr. Langhope, after his first movement of uncontrollable
distress, had seemed able to make allowances for the pressure under
which she had acted, and that he had, at any rate, given no sign of
intending to let her confession make any change in the relation between
the households. If she did not--as Amherst afterward recalled--put all
this specifically into words, she contrived to convey it in her manner,
in her allusions, above all in her recovered composure. She had the
demeanour of one who has gone through a severe test of strength, but
come out of it in complete control of the situation. There was something
slightly unnatural in this prompt solution of so complicated a
difficulty, and it had the effect of making Amherst ask himself what, to
produce such a result, must have been the gist of her communication to
Mr. Langhope. If the latter ha