’There’s no harm in saying, Mr. Rolfe, that I never dared to hope for this.  I thought perhaps that you —­ but I was afraid Alma wouldn’t listen to any one.  Just of late, she seemed to feel her position so much more than at first.  It was my fault; I behaved so foolishly; but I’m sure you’ll both forgive me.  For months I really wasn’t myself.  It made the poor girl bitter against all of us.  But how noble she is!  How high-minded!  And how much, much happier she will be than if she had struggled on alone —­ whatever she might have attained to.’

It was clear to Harvey that the well-meaning lady did not quite understand Alma’s sudden enthusiasm for the ‘simple life’, that she had but a confused apprehension of the ideal for which Alma panted.  But the suggestion of ‘economy’ received her entire approval.

’I feel sure you couldn’t do better than to go and live in the country for a time.  There are so many reasons why Alma will be happier there, at first, than in London.  I don’t know whether that place in North Wales would be quite —­ but I mustn’t meddle with what doesn’t concern me.  And you will be thoroughly independent; at any moment you can make a change.’

To a suggestion that she should run down into Carnarvonshire, and see her proposed home before any practical step was taken, Alma replied that she had complete faith in Harvey Rolfe’s judgment.  Harvey’s only doubt was as to the possibility of finding a house.  He made the journey himself, and after a few days’ absence returned with no very hopeful report; at present there was nothing to be had but a cottage, literally a cotter’s home, and this would not do.  He brought photographs, and Alma went into raptures over the lovely little bay, with its grassy cliffs, its rivulet, its smooth sand, and the dark-peaked mountains sweeping nobly to a sheer buttress above the waves.  ’There must be a house!  There shall be a house!’ Of course, said Harvey, one could build, and cheaply enough; but that meant a long delay.  Regarding the date of the marriage nothing was as yet decided, but Harvey had made up his mind to be ‘at home’ for Christmas.  When he ventured to hint at this, Alma evaded the question.

A correspondent would inform him if any house became tenantless.  ’I shall bribe someone to quit!’ he cried.  ’One might advertise that all expenses would be paid, with one year’s rent of a house elsewhere.’  Harvey was in excellent spirits, though time hung rather heavily on his hands.

On an appointed day the ladies paid him a visit at his rooms.  Mrs Handover, requested to prepare tea for a semi-ceremonious occasion, was at once beset with misgivings, and the first sight of the strangers plunged her into profound despondency.  She consulted her indifferent relative, Buncombe; had he any inkling of the possibility that Mr. Rolfe was about to change his condition?  Buncombe knew nothing and cared nothing; his own domestic affairs were giving him more than usual anxiety just now.  ‘I didn’t think he was fool enough’ —­ thus only he replied to Mrs. Handover’s anxious questions.