‘It is that accursed Davis that stands against me,’ said the son.

John Caldigate, no doubt, had many things to trouble him.  Before he had resolved on making his second visit to Chesterton, he received a most heartrending epistle from Aunt Polly in which he was assured that he was quite as dear to her as ever, quite as dear as her own children, and in which he was implored to return to the haunts of his childhood where everybody loved him and admired him.  After what had passed, he was determined not to revisit the haunts till he was married, or, at any rate, engaged to be married.  But there was a difficulty in explaining this to Aunt Polly without an appearance of ingratitude.  And then there were affairs in Australia which annoyed him.  Tom Crinkett was taking advantage of his absence in reference to Polyeuka,—­that his presence would soon be required there;—­and other things were not going quite smoothly.  He had much to trouble him;—­but still he was determined to carry out his purpose with Hester Bolton.  Since the day on which he had roused himself to the necessity of an active life he had ever called upon himself ‘not to let the grass grow under his feet.’  And he had taught himself to think that there were few things a man could not achieve if he would only live up to that motto.  Therefore, though he was perplexed by letters from Australia, and though his Aunt Polly was a great nuisance, he determined to persevere at once.  If he allowed himself to revisit Nobble before he had settled this matter with Hester Bolton, would it not be natural that Hester Bolton should be the wife of some other man before he returned?

With all this on his mind he started off one day on horseback to Cambridge.  When he left Folking he had not quite made up his mind whether he would go direct to the bank and ask for old Mr. Bolton, or make a first attempt at that fortified castle at Chesterton.  But on entering the town he put his horse up at an inn just where the road turns off to Chesterton, and proceeded on foot to the house.  This was about a mile distant from the stable, and as he walked that mile he resolved that if he could get into the house at all he would declare his purpose to some one before he left it.  What was the use of shilly-shallying?  ’Who ever did anything by letting the grass grow under his feet?’ So he knocked boldly at the door and asked for Mrs. Bolton.  After a considerable time, the maid came and told him, apparently with much hesitation, that Mrs. Bolton was at home.  He was quite determined to ask for Miss Bolton if Mrs. Bolton were denied to him.  But the girl said that Mrs. Bolton was at home, seeming by her manner to say at the same time, ’I cannot tell a lie about it, because of the sin; but I don’t know what business you can have here, and I’m sure that my mistress does not want to see any such a one as you.’  Nevertheless she showed him into the big sitting-room on the left hand of the hall, and as he entered he saw the skirts of a lady’s dress vanishing through another door.  Had there been a moment allowed him he would boldly have called the lady back, for he was sure that the lady was Hester;—­but the lady was gone and the door closed before he could open his mouth.