When she reached home she found Mrs. Pettifer there, anxious for her return.  After thanking her for coming, Janet only said, ’I have been to Mr. Tryan’s; I wanted to speak to him;’ and then remembering how she had left the bureau and papers, she went into the back-room, where, apparently, no one had been since she quitted it; for there lay the fragments of glass, and the room was still full of the hateful odour.  How feeble and miserable the temptation seemed to her at this moment!  She rang for Kitty to come and pick up the fragments and rub the floor, while she herself replaced the papers and locked up the bureau.

The next morning, when seated at breakfast with Mrs. Pettifer, Janet said,—­’What a dreary unhealthy-looking place that is where Mr. Tryan lives!  I’m sure it must be very bad for him to live there.  Do you know, all this morning, since I’ve been awake, I’ve been turning over a little plan in my mind.  I think it a charming one—­all the more, because you are concerned in it.’

‘Why, what can that be?’

’You know that house on the Redhill road they call Holly Mount; it is shut up now.  That is Robert’s house; at least, it is mine now, and it stands on one of the healthiest spots about here.  Now, I’ve been settling in my own mind, that if a dear good woman of my acquaintance, who knows how to make a home as comfortable and cosy as a bird’s nest, were to take up her abode there, and have Mr. Tryan as a lodger, she would be doing one of the most useful deeds in all her useful life.’

’You’ve such a way of wrapping up things in pretty words.  You must speak plainer.’

’In plain words, then, I should like to settle you at Holly Mount.  You would not have to pay any more rent than where you are, and it would be twenty times pleasanter for you than living up that passage where you see nothing but a brick wall.  And then, as it is not far from Paddiford, I think Mr. Tryan might be persuaded to lodge with you, instead of in that musty house, among dead cabbages and smoky cottages.  I know you would like to have him live with you, and you would be such a mother to him.’

’To be sure I should like it; it would be the finest thing in the world for me.  But there’ll be furniture wanted.  My little bit of furniture won’t fill that house.’

’O, I can put some in out of this house; it is too full; and we can buy the rest.  They tell me I’m to have more money than I shall know what to do with.’

‘I’m almost afraid,’ said Mrs. Pettifer, doubtfully, ’Mr. Tryan will hardly be persuaded.  He’s been talked to so much about leaving that place; and he always said he must stay there—­he must be among the people, and there was no other place for him in Paddiford.  It cuts me to the heart to see him getting thinner and thinner, and I’ve noticed him quite short o’ breath sometimes.  Mrs. Linnet will have it, Mrs. Wagstaff half poisons him with bad cooking.  I don’t know about that, but he can’t have many comforts.  I expect he’ll break down all of a sudden some day, and never be able to preach any more.’