m!"

John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a
half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did
not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a
subsequent occasion.

CHAPTER X

The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance,
partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again
hired the cutter-yacht _Palestine_, and the whole party made several
expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her
life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except
in his presence.

I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but
during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still
returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case.
I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify
me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand
little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he
seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse
her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the
same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself
shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was
the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I
continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so
unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long
it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius
violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it
from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us
the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had
become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had
purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his
guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by
Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid
aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of
fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous
value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had
we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John
purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of
so large a fortune