to me yesterday--'What's come to Mr. Jollyman?' she
says. 'He hasn't a civil word for me!' she says. Of course, I made out
as you'd been suffering from a bad 'eadache, and I shouldn't wonder if
that's the truth, sir."

Warburton set his teeth and said nothing.

"You wouldn't like to take just a little 'oliday, sir?" returned
Allchin. "This next week, I could manage well enough. It might do you
good, sir, to have a mouthful of sea air--"

"I'll think about it," broke in the other abruptly.

He was going away without another word, but, in crossing the shop, he
caught his henchman's eye fixed on him with a troublous gaze.
Self-reproach checked his steps.

"You're quite right, Allchin," he said in a confidential tone. "I'm not
quite up to the mark, and perhaps I should do well to take a holiday.
Thank you for speaking about it."

He walked home, and there, on his table, he found a letter from Franks,
which he eagerly tore open. "I have as good as decided," wrote the
artist. "Yesterday, I went to Ashtead, and saw R. We met like old
friends--just as I wished. Talked as naturally as you and I. I
suspect--only suspect of course--that she knows of my visits to Walham
Green, and smiles at them! Yes, as you say, I think she has
improved--decidedly. The upshot of it all is that I shall call on the
Crosses again, and, when an opportunity offers, try my chance. I think
I am acting sensibly, don't you?"

After reading this, Will paced about his room for an hour or two. Then
he flung himself into bed, but got no sleep until past dawn. Rising at
the usual hour, he told himself that this would not do; to live on in
this way was mere moral suicide; he resolved to run down to St. Neots,
whence, if his mother were capable of the journey, she and Jane might
go for a week or two to the seaside. So, having packed his travelling
bag, he walked to the shop, and arranged with Allchin for a week's
absence, greatly to the assistant's satisfaction. Before noon he was at
The Haws. But the idea of a family expedition to the seaside could not
be carried out: Mrs. Warburton was not strong enough to leave home, and
Jane had just invited a friend to come and spend a week with them.
Disguising as best he could his miserable state of mind and body, Will
stayed for a couple of days. The necessity for detailed lying about his
affairs in London--lying which would long ago have been detected, but
for the absolute confidence of his mother and sister, and