“Pray,” said he, “if you lived in this island of which you dream, would you tell me you hated me?  I am beginning to be rather nervous.”

“We are not living in it just yet.”

“But in one just as disagreeable, for it is pouring with rain.”

Miriam gave a sudden start.  She unconsciously looked that the conversation would prolong itself in the same interior strain.  Reference to the outside world was impossible to her just then, and that Mr. Montgomery was capable of it was a shock like that of cold water.  She came to herself, and went to the window.

“Must you go out in this storm?”

“Must; and what is more, I haven’t got a minute to spare.  I may take it for granted, then, you and Andrew will come.”

“Yes, certainly.”

He hastily put on his coat; shook hands—­nothing more—­and was off.

Miriam ran upstairs into her bedroom, went to the little box in which she kept her treasures, unlocked it, took out the little note—­the only note she had ever had from him—­read it again and again, and then tore it into twenty pieces, each one of which she picked up and tried to put together.  She then threw herself on the bed, and for the first time in her life was overcome with hysterical tears.  She dared not confess to herself what she wanted.  She would have liked to cast herself at his feet; but notwithstanding her disbelief in form and ceremony, she could not do it.  She cursed the check which had held her so straitly while she was talking with him, and cursed him that he dealt with her so lightly.  The continued sobbing at last took the heat out of her, and she rose from her bed, collected the pieces of the note, went downstairs, and put them one by one deliberately in the fire.

It was time now that they should seriously consider how they stood.  Andrew had nothing to do, and the wages paid him in advance were nearly exhausted.  They decided that they would move into cheaper lodgings.  They had some difficulty in finding any that were decent but they obtained three miserable rooms at the top of a house occupied by a man who sold firewood and potatoes in one of the streets running out of the Blackfriars Road.  They left Miss Tippit without bidding her good-bye, for she was still unwell, and in bed.  They actually began to know what poverty was, but Miriam as yet did not feel its approach.  There were thoughts and hopes in her which protected her against all apprehension of the future, although the cloud into which they must almost inevitably enter was so immediately in front of her.