But they were miserable months.  To rise in the morning, to go through the round of daily duty—­thinking of Geoffrey; to come home wearied, and finally to seek refuge in sleep and dreams of him—­this was the sum of them.  Then there were other troubles.  To begin with, things had gone from bad to worse at the Vicarage.  The tithes scarcely came in at all, and every day their poverty pinched them closer.  Had it not been for Beatrice’s salary it was difficult to see how the family could have continued to exist.  She gave it almost all to her father now, only keeping back a very small sum for her necessary clothing and such sundries as stamps and writing paper.  Even then, Elizabeth grumbled bitterly at her extravagance in continuing to buy a daily paper, asking what business she had to spend sixpence a week on such a needless luxury.  But Beatrice would not make up her mind to dock the paper with its occasional mention of Geoffrey.

Again, Owen Davies was a perpetual anxiety to her.  His infatuation for herself was becoming notorious; everybody saw it except her father.  Mr. Granger’s mind was so occupied with questions connected with tithe that fortunately for Beatrice little else could find an entry.  Owen dogged her about; he would wait whole hours outside the school or by the Vicarage gate merely to speak a few words to her.  Sometimes when at length she appeared he seemed to be struck dumb, he could say nothing, but would gaze at her with his dull eyes in a fashion that filled her with vague alarm.  He never ventured to speak to her of his love indeed, but he looked it, which was almost as bad.  Another thing was that he had grown jealous.  The seed which Elizabeth had planted in his mind had brought forth abundantly, though of course Beatrice did not know that this was her sister’s doing.

On the very morning that Geoffrey went away Mr. Davies had met her as she was walking back from the station and asked her if Mr. Bingham had gone.  When she replied that this was so, she had distinctly heard him murmur, “Thank God! thank God!” Subsequently she discovered also that he bribed the old postman to keep count of the letters which she sent and received from Geoffrey.

These things filled Beatrice with alarm, but there was worse behind.  Mr. Davies began to send her presents, first such things as prize pigeons and fowls, then jewellery.  The pigeons and fowls she could not well return without exciting remark, but the jewellery she sent back by one of the school children.  First came a bracelet, then a locket with his photograph inside, and lastly, a case that, when she opened it, which her curiosity led her to do, nearly blinded her with light.  It was a diamond necklace, and she had never seen such diamonds before, but from their size and lustre she knew that each stone must be worth hundreds of pounds.  Beatrice put it in her pocket and carried it until she met him, which she did in the course of that afternoon.