it." She put back with careful hands the piece of
cambric which she had moved, and then, seating herself on a chair, wept
violently, with her hands closed upon her face. "That comes of bringing
me here," he said. "Get up, Hermione. I will not have you so foolish.
Get up, I say. I will have the room closed till the men come."

"Oh, no!"

"Get up, I say, and come away." Then she rose, and followed him out of
the chamber; and when he went to change his clothes, she returned to the
room in which he had found her. There she sat and wept, while he went
down and dined and drank alone. But the old housekeeper brought her up a
morsel of food and a glass of wine, saying that her master desired that
she would take it.

"I will not leave you, my lady, till you have done so," said Hannah. "To
fast so long must be bad always."

Then she eat the food, and drank a drop of wine, and allowed the old
woman to take her away to the bed that had been prepared for her. Of her
husband she saw no more for four days. On the next morning a note was
brought to her, in which Sir Hugh told her that he had returned to
London. It was necessary, he said, that he should see his lawyer and his
brother. He and Archie would return for the funeral. With reference to
that he had already given orders.

During the next three days, and till her husband's return, Lady
Clavering remained at the rectory; and in the comfort of Mrs.
Clavering's presence, she almost felt that it would be well for her if
those days could be prolonged. But she knew the hour at which her
husband would return, and she took care to be at home when he arrived.
"You will come and see him?" she said to the rector, as she left the
parsonage. "You will come at once--in an hour or two?" Mr. Clavering
remembered the circumstances of his last visit to the house, and the
declaration he had then made that he would not return there. But all
that could not now be considered.

"Yes," he said, "I will come across this evening. But you had better
tell him, so that he need not be troubled to see me if he would rather
be alone."

"Oh, he will see you. Of course he will see you. And you will not
remember that he ever offended you?"

Mrs. Clavering had written both to Julia and to Harry, and the day of
the funeral had been settled. Harry had already communicated his
intention of coming down; and Lady Ongar had replied to Mrs. Clavering's
letter, saying that she could not now offer to go to Claveri