es, miss, they have gone."

Lucy sank back. The carriage stopped at the Rectory. She got out to call
for Miss Bartlett. So the Emersons had gone, and all this bother about
Greece had been unnecessary. Waste! That word seemed to sum up the whole
of life. Wasted plans, wasted money, wasted love, and she had wounded
her mother. Was it possible that she had muddled things away? Quite
possible. Other people had. When the maid opened the door, she was
unable to speak, and stared stupidly into the hall.

Miss Bartlett at once came forward, and after a long preamble asked
a great favour: might she go to church? Mr. Beebe and his mother had
already gone, but she had refused to start until she obtained her
hostess's full sanction, for it would mean keeping the horse waiting a
good ten minutes more.

"Certainly," said the hostess wearily. "I forgot it was Friday. Let's
all go. Powell can go round to the stables."

"Lucy dearest--"

"No church for me, thank you."

A sigh, and they departed. The church was invisible, but up in the
darkness to the left there was a hint of colour. This was a stained
window, through which some feeble light was shining, and when the door
opened Lucy heard Mr. Beebe's voice running through the litany to a
minute congregation. Even their church, built upon the slope of the hill
so artfully, with its beautiful raised transept and its spire of silvery
shingle--even their church had lost its charm; and the thing one never
talked about--religion--was fading like all the other things.

She followed the maid into the Rectory.

Would she object to sitting in Mr. Beebe's study? There was only that
one fire.

She would not object.

Some one was there already, for Lucy heard the words: "A lady to wait,
sir."

Old Mr. Emerson was sitting by the fire, with his foot upon a
gout-stool.

"Oh, Miss Honeychurch, that you should come!" he quavered; and Lucy saw
an alteration in him since last Sunday.

Not a word would come to her lips. George she had faced, and could have
faced again, but she had forgotten how to treat his father.

"Miss Honeychurch, dear, we are so sorry! George is so sorry! He thought
he had a right to try. I cannot blame my boy, and yet I wish he had told
me first. He ought not to have tried. I knew nothing about it at all."

If only she could remember how to behave!

He held up his hand. "But you must not scold him."

Lucy turned her back, and began to look at Mr. Beebe's books.