n him a desire, an intention that
up till now he had concealed from her. It had left its hiding place; it
rose on terrifying wings and fluttered before her, troubling her. She
was reminded that, though there were no lurking possibilities in her,
with him it might be different. For him the tie between them might come
to mean something that it had never meant and could not mean for her,
something that she had refused not only to see but to foresee and
provide for.

She was aware of a certain relief when Monday came and he had left her
without any further unveilings and revealings. She was even glad when,
about the middle of the week, the Powells came with a cart-load of
luggage and settled at the Farm. She said to herself that they would
take her mind off him. They had a way of seizing on her and holding her
attention to the exclusion of all other objects.

She could hardly not have been seized and held by a case so pitiful, so
desperate as theirs. How pitiful and desperate it had become she
learned almost at once from the face of her friend, the little pale-eyed
wife, whose small, flat, flower-like features were washed out and worn
fine by watchings and listenings on the border, on the threshold.

Yes, he was worse. He had had to give up his business (Harding Powell
was a gentle stockbroker). It wasn't any longer, Milly Powell intimated,
a question of borders and of thresholds. They had passed all that. He
had gone clean over; he was in the dreadful interior; and she, the
resolute and vigilant little woman, had no longer any power to get him
out. She was at the end of her tether.

Agatha knew what he had been for years? Well--he was worse than that;
far worse than he had been, ever. Not so bad though that he hadn't
intervals in which he knew how bad he was, and was willing to do
everything, to try anything. They were going to try Sarratt End. It was
her idea. She knew how marvellously it had answered with dear Agatha
(not that Agatha ever was, or could be, where _he_ was, poor darling).
And besides, Agatha herself was an attraction. It had occurred to Milly
Powell that it might do Harding good to be near Agatha. There was
something about her; Milly didn't know what it was, but she felt it,
_he_ felt it--an influence or something, that made for mental peace. It
was, Mrs. Powell said, as if she had some secret.

She hoped Agatha wouldn't mind. It couldn't possibly hurt her. _He_
couldn't. The darling couldn't hurt a f