Hetty blushed too.  She saw that he had guessed at length, but she saw him also clothed in a shining innocence.  She felt suddenly that, though she might love him better, there were privacies she could not discuss with Charles as with John.  And for the moment Charles seemed to her the more distant and mysterious of the two.

What she answered was—­“We shall be following you back to Lincolnshire in a few days.  I am to stay at Louth, in the house where William has found lodgings for his father—­who was born at Louth, you know, and has now determined to end his days there.  William will not be with me at first; he has to wind up the business at Lincoln and looks for some unpleasantness, as he has made himself responsible for all the old man’s debts.  I may even find my way to Wroote before facing Louth.”

“To Wroote?”

“As a moth to the old cruel flame, dear.  They will not take me in:  but I know where to find a bedroom.  Women have curious fancies at times; and I feel as if I may die very likely, and I want to see their faces first.”

She stepped to him and kissed him hurriedly, hearing her husband’s step on the stairs.  “Remember to speak with Molly!”

CHAPTER II.

EXTRACTED FROM THE WESLEY CORRESPONDENCE.

1.  From Charles Wesley at Oxford to his brother John at Stanton in Gloucestershire.

                                       January 20th, 1727. 
     Poor Sister Hetty! ’twas but a week before I left London that I
     knew she was at it.  Little of that time you may be sure, did I
     lose, being with her almost continually; I could almost envy
     myself the doat of pleasure I had crowded within that small
     space.  In a little neat room she had hired, did the
     good-natured, ingenuous, contented creature watch, and I talk,
     over a few short days which we both wished had been longer. 
     As yet she lives pretty well, having but herself and honest
     W. W. to keep, though I fancy there’s another a-coming. 
     Brother Sam and sister are very kind to her, and I hope will
     continue so, for I have cautioned her never to contradict my
     sister, whom she knows.  I’d like to have forgot she begs you’d
     write to her, at Mrs. Wakeden’s in Crown Court, Dean Street,
     near Soho Square.

2.  From Mary Wesley (Molly) to her brother Charles at Oxford (same date).

You were very much mistaken in thinking I took ill your desiring my sister Emily to knit you another pair of gloves.  What I meant was to my brother Jack, because he gave her charge to look to my well-doing of his:  but I desire you no more to mention your obligation to me for the gloves, for by your being pleased with them I am fully paid.

Dear brother, I beg you not to let the present straits you labour under to narrow