f the two. When the news came that George had acquired
down there a house in going order, she had had to prove that it was not
the end of the world that was announced. When the news came that George
had re-sold the Cedars to its original occupier, she had had to prove
that the transaction did not signify a mysterious but mortal insult to
Sarah. When the news came that the Cedars must be vacated before noon on
a given Saturday, she had had to begin all her demonstrations afresh,
and in addition attempt to persuade Sarah that George was not utterly
mad--buying and selling boarding-house tenancies all over the South of
England!--and that the exit from the Cedars would not be the ruin of
dignity and peace, and the commencement of fatal disasters. In the hour
when Sarah Gailey learnt the immutable Saturday of departure, the
Cedars, which had been her hell, promised to become, on that very
Saturday, a paradise.

On the whole, the three months had constituted a quarter of exceeding
difficulty and delicacy. The first month had been rendered memorable by
Sarah's astonishing behaviour when Hilda had desired to pay, as before,
for her board and lodging. The mere offer of the money had made plain to
Sarah--what she then said she had always suspected--that Hilda was her
enemy in disguise and (like the rest) bent on humiliating her, and
outraging her most sacred feelings. In that encounter, but in no other,
Sarah had won. The opportune withdrawal of the Boutwoods from the
boarding-house had assisted the establishment of peace. When the
Boutwoods left, Miss Gailey seemed to breathe the drawing-room air as
though it were ozone of the mountains. But her joy had been quickly
dissipated, for to dissipate joy was her chief recreation. A fortnight
before the migration to Brighton Hilda, contemplating all that had to be
done, had thought, aghast: "I shall never he able to humour her into
doing it all!" Closing of accounts, dismissals, inventories, bills,
receipts, packing, decision concerning trains, reception of the former
proprietor (especially that!), good-byes, superintending the stowage of
luggage on the cab...! George Cannon had not once appeared in the last
sensitive weeks, and he had therein been wise. And all that had to be
done had been done--not by Hilda, but by Sarah Gailey the touchy and the
competent. Hilda had done little but the humouring.

II

And there sat Sarah Gailey, deracinated and captive, to prove how
influential