_that's_ fixed her,"
she thought.)

Edith only said again, "Really?" Then added, "Good afternoon," and
hurried away. So _this_ was the woman Eleanor would make Maurice marry!
"Never!" Edith said. "Never! if _I_ can prevent it!"

Upstairs in Mrs. Newbolt's spare room, as the twilight thickened, there
was silence, except for the terrible breathing, and the clock ticking
away the seconds; one by one they fell--like beads slipping from a
string. Maurice sat holding Eleanor's hand. The others, speaking,
sometimes, without sound, or moving, noiselessly, stood before the meek
majesty of dying. Waiting. Waiting. It was not until midnight that she
opened her eyes again and looked at Maurice, very peacefully.

"Tell Edith it wasn't what she said, made me try ... our river ... Jacky
will call her ... Tell Edith ... to be kind to Jacky."

She did not speak again.

CHAPTER XXXVII

"I have an uneasy feeling," said Mr. Houghton, "that he is thinking of
marrying the woman, just to carry out Eleanor's wish. Poor Eleanor!
Always doing the wrong thing, with greatness." This was in September.
Maurice was to come up to Green Hill for a Sunday, and the Houghtons
were in the studio talking about the expected guest. Later Edith was to
drive over to the junction and meet him....

It was not only Green Hill which talked about Maurice. In the months
that followed Eleanor's death, a good many people had pondered his
affairs, because, somehow, that visit of Jacky's to Mrs. Newbolt's
house, got noised abroad, so Maurice's friends (making the inevitable
deductions) told one another exactly what he ought to do.

Mrs. Newbolt expressed herself in great detail: "I shall never forgive
him," she said; "my poor Eleanor! _She_ forgave him, and sent for the
child. More than _I_ would do for any man! But I could have told her
what to expect. In fact, I did. I always said if she wasn't
entertainin', she'd lose him. Yes; she had a hard time--but she kept her
figger. Should Maurice marry the--boy's mother? _'Course not!_ Puffect
nonsense. You think he'll make up to Edith Houghton? She would have too
much self-respect to look at him! And if she did, her father would never
consent to it."

The Mortons' opinion was just as definite: "I hope Maurice will marry
again; Edith's just the girl for him--_What!_" Mrs. Morton interrupted
herself, at a whisper of gossip, "he had a mistress? I don't believe a
word of it!"

"But I'm afraid it's true," her