ow I can get
another week further on in March if the rain should come." With this
Sir Harry seemed to be satisfied; but Ayala felt sure that Tony's
temper and the rain had had nothing to do with it.

"Good-bye, Miss Dormer," he said, with his pleasantest smile, and his
pleasantest voice.

"Good-bye," she repeated. What would she not have given that her
voice should be as pleasant as his, and her smile! But she failed so
utterly that the little word was inaudible,--almost obliterated by
the choking of a sob. How bitterly severe had that word, Miss Dormer,
sounded from his mouth! Could he not have called her Ayala for the
last time,--even though all the world should have heard it? She was
wide awake in the morning and heard the wheels of his cart as he was
driven off. As the sound died away upon her ear she felt that he
was gone from her for ever. How had it been that she had said, "I
cannot," so often, when all her heart was set upon "I can?"

And now it remained to her to take herself away from Stalham as fast
as she might. She understood perfectly all those ideas which Lady
Albury had expressed to her well-loved friend. She was nothing to
anybody at Stalham, simply a young lady staying in the house;--as
might be some young lady connected with them by blood, or some
young lady whose father and mother had been their friends. She had
been brought there to Stalham, now this second time, in order that
Jonathan Stubbs might take her as his wife. Driven by some madness
she had refused her destiny, and now nobody would want her at Stalham
any longer. She had better begin to pack up at once,--and go. The
coldness of the people, now that she had refused to do as she had
been asked, would be unbearable to her. And yet she must not let it
appear that Stalham was no longer dear to her merely because Colonel
Stubbs had left it. She would let a day go by, and then say with all
the ease she could muster that she would take her departure on the
next. After that her life before her would be a blank. She had known
up to this,--so at least she told herself,--that Jonathan Stubbs
would afford her at any rate another chance. Now there could be no
other chance.

The first blank day passed away, and it seemed to her almost as
though she had no right to speak to any one. She was sure that Lady
Rufford knew what had occurred, because nothing more was said as
to the proposed visit. Mrs. Colonel Stubbs would have been welcome
anywhere, but