ther arguments. "Oh, Melbury," she
burst out, "you have made me so unhappy! How could you come to me like
this! It is too dreadful! Now go away--go, go!"

"I will," he said, in a husky tone.

As soon as he was out of the room she went to a corner and there sat
and writhed under an emotion in which hurt pride and vexation mingled
with better sentiments.

Mrs. Charmond's mobile spirit was subject to these fierce periods of
stress and storm. She had never so clearly perceived till now that her
soul was being slowly invaded by a delirium which had brought about all
this; that she was losing judgment and dignity under it, becoming an
animated impulse only, a passion incarnate. A fascination had led her
on; it was as if she had been seized by a hand of velvet; and this was
where she found herself--overshadowed with sudden night, as if a
tornado had passed by.

While she sat, or rather crouched, unhinged by the interview,
lunch-time came, and then the early afternoon, almost without her
consciousness. Then "a strange gentleman who says it is not necessary
to give his name," was suddenly announced.

"I cannot see him, whoever he may be. I am not at home to anybody."

She heard no more of her visitor; and shortly after, in an attempt to
recover some mental serenity by violent physical exercise, she put on
her hat and cloak and went out-of-doors, taking a path which led her up
the slopes to the nearest spur of the wood. She disliked the woods,
but they had the advantage of being a place in which she could walk
comparatively unobserved.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

There was agitation to-day in the lives of all whom these matters
concerned. It was not till the Hintock dinner-time--one o'clock--that
Grace discovered her father's absence from the house after a departure
in the morning under somewhat unusual conditions. By a little
reasoning and inquiry she was able to come to a conclusion on his
destination, and to divine his errand.

Her husband was absent, and her father did not return. He had, in
truth, gone on to Sherton after the interview, but this Grace did not
know. In an indefinite dread that something serious would arise out of
Melbury's visit by reason of the inequalities of temper and nervous
irritation to which he was subject, something possibly that would bring
her much more misery than accompanied her present negative state of
mind, she left the house about three o'clock, and took a loitering walk
in the