e aid
of one hand, whilst the other still held his cup of coffee; much more
carelessly than would have been the case had the expected new-comer been
Cytherea Graye, instead of his lawful wife.

He did not perceive, branching from the column down which his finger
ran, a small twist, called a shunting-line, inserted at a particular
place, to imply that at that point the train was divided into two. By
this oversight he understood that the arrival of his wife at Carriford
Road Station would not be till late in the evening: by the second half
of the train, containing the third-class passengers, and passing two
hours and three-quarters later than the previous one, by which the lady,
as a second-class passenger, would really be brought.

He then considered that there would be plenty of time for him to return
from his day's engagement to meet this train. He finished his breakfast,
gave proper and precise directions to his servant on the preparations
that were to be made for the lady's reception, jumped into his gig, and
drove off to Lord Claydonfield's, at Chettlewood.

He went along by the front of Knapwater House. He could not help turning
to look at what he knew to be the window of Cytherea's room. Whilst he
looked, a hopeless expression of passionate love and sensuous anguish
came upon his face and lingered there for a few seconds; then, as on
previous occasions, it was resolutely repressed, and he trotted along
the smooth white road, again endeavouring to banish all thought of the
young girl whose beauty and grace had so enslaved him.

Thus it was that when, in the evening of the same day, Mrs. Manston
reached Carriford Road Station, her husband was still at Chettlewood,
ignorant of her arrival, and on looking up and down the platform, dreary
with autumn gloom and wind, she could see no sign that any preparation
whatever had been made for her reception and conduct home.

The train went on. She waited, fidgeted with the handle of her umbrella,
walked about, strained her eyes into the gloom of the chilly night,
listened for wheels, tapped with her foot, and showed all the usual
signs of annoyance and irritation: she was the more irritated in
that this seemed a second and culminating instance of her husband's
neglect--the first having been shown in his not fetching her.

Reflecting awhile upon the course it would be best to take, in order
to secure a passage to Knapwater, she decided to leave all her luggage,
except a d