not at first reconcile herself to having no authority to exert, and this
jangling was not a good preparation for sisterly sympathy towards her.

The Vicar's wife might have become friends with her, but during the six
months Henrietta was in the parish Mrs. Wharton was ill and hardly able
to see anyone. Besides, she was shy, and the only time that Henrietta
came to tea they never succeeded in getting beyond a comparison of
foreign hotels.

Henrietta would have liked to confide her troubles, but as she grew
older she had become a great deal more reserved, and also these troubles
she was ashamed to speak of. To think that she had made her own sister,
ill and miserable as she was, more ill and more miserable, she could not
forgive herself; she was even harder on herself than Herbert had been.

As Mr. Wharton had said, it was useless engaging in this arduous work
when her heart was elsewhere. When her six months of trial came to an
end, it was clear that the only thing for her was to go. No one could
pretend they were sorry, and as everyone imagined she was glad, there
seemed no reason to disguise their feelings. They would have been
surprised if they had known her thoughts as she sat at the evening
service on her last Sunday. "Whatever I do, I fail; what is the use of
my living? Why was I born?"

She said to Mr. Wharton in her farewell interview: "I know I have been
very stupid at learning what was to be done, and I have not been willing
to take advice. Now I look back, I see the mistakes I have made, and I
have done harm instead of good. I want to give you"--she named a large
sum considering the size of her income--"to spend as you think right, I
hope that may help to make amends. I am very sorry."

He heard a quiver in her voice, and the dislike and irritation he had
felt all the six months faded away.

"This is much too generous of you," he stammered. "It is my fault, all
my fault. I have been so irritable, I haven't made allowances. My wife
tells me of it constantly. I wish you would forgive me and give us
another chance. Stay six months longer."

His awkwardness and distress almost disarmed her, but she had felt his
snubs, and at nearly forty she was not going to be encouraged like a
child. So that though for many reasons she longed to stay, she answered:
"Thank you, it was a purely temporary arrangement; I have other plans."

As she walked home she wondered what the other plans were.

When in doubt, go abro