wed her as arranged; that they must meet by the
river in the evening, when they could further discuss the situation
which had arisen.

Mavis sank helplessly on her bed: she felt as if her heart had been
struck a merciless blow. She was a little consoled by Perigal's letter,
but, in her heart of hearts, something told her that, despite his brave
words, the marriage was indefinitely postponed; indeed, it was more
than doubtful if it would ever take place at all. She suffered, dumbly,
despairingly; her torments were the more poignant because she realised
that the man she loved beyond anything in the world must be acutely
distressed at this unexpected confounding of his hopes. Her head
throbbed with dull pains which gradually increased in intensity; these,
at last, became so violent that she wondered if it were going to burst.
She felt the need of action, of doing anything that might momentarily
ease her mind of the torments afflicting it. Her wedding frock
attracted her attention. Mavis, with a lump in her throat, took off and
folded this, and put it out of sight in a trunk; then, with red eyes
and face the colour of lead, she flung on her work-a-day clothes, to
walk mechanically to the office. The whole day she tried to come to
terms with the calamity that had so suddenly befallen her; a heavy,
persistent pressure on the top of her head mercifully dulled her
perceptions; but at the back of her mind a resolution was momentarily
gaining strength--a resolution that was to the effect that it was her
duty to the man she loved to insist upon his falling in with his
father's wishes. It gave her a certain dim pleasure to think that her
suffering meant that, some day, Perigal would be grateful to her for
her abnegation of self.

Perigal, looking middle-aged and careworn, was impatiently awaiting her
arrival by the river. Her heart ached to see his altered appearance.

"My Mavis!" he cried, as he took her hand.

She tried to speak, but a little sob caught in her throat. They walked
for some moments in silence.

"I told him all about it; I thought it better," said Perigal presently.
"But I never thought he'd cut up rough."

"Is there any chance of his changing his mind?"

"Not the remotest. If he once gets a thing into his head, as he has
this, nothing on earth will move him."

"I won't let it make any difference to you," she declared.

"What do you mean?" he asked quickly.

"That nothing, nothing will persuade me to mar