hunting when she would be at Kingsbury Crescent?
On neither of these occasions did she say a word, but she assumed
that little look of contradiction which her friends at Stalham
already knew how to read. Then, on the Sunday morning, there came
a letter for Lady Albury. "What does he say?" asked Sir Harry, at
breakfast. "I'll show it you before you go to church," answered his
wife. Then Ayala knew that the letter was from Colonel Stubbs.

But she did not expect that the letter should be shown her,--which,
however, came to be the case. When she was in the library, waiting
to start to church, Lady Albury came in and threw the letter to her
across the table. "That concerns you," she said, "you had better read
it." There was another lady in the room, also waiting to start on
their walk across the park, and therefore it was natural that nothing
else should be said at the moment. Ayala read the letter, returned
it to the envelope, and then handed it back to Lady Albury,--so that
there was no word spoken about it before church. The letter, which
was very short, was as follows;--

"I shall be at Stalham by the afternoon train on Sunday, 30th,--in
time for dinner, if you will send the dog-cart. I could not leave
this most exigeant of all places this week. I suppose Albury will
go on in the woodlands for a week or ten days in April, and I must
put up with that. I hear that Batsby is altogether fixed by the
fascinations of Merle Park. I hope that you and Albury will receive
consolation in the money." Then there was a postscript. "If Croppy
can be got back again, Miss Dormer might see me tumble into another
river."

It was evident that Lady Albury did not expect anything to be said
at present. She put the letter into her pocket, and there, for the
moment, was the end of it. It may be feared that Ayala's attention
was not fixed that morning so closely as it should have been on the
services of the Church. There was so much in that little letter which
insisted upon having all her attention! Had there been no postscript,
the letter would have been very different. In that case the body
of the letter itself would have intended to have no reference to
her,--or rather it would have had a reference altogether opposite to
that which the postscript gave it. In that case it would have been
manifest to her that he had intentionally postponed his coming till
she had left Stalham. Then his suggestion about the hunting would
have had no intere