Through the white blind the morning twilight just made objects visible in the room; Adela afterwards remembered noticing the drowsy pipe of a bird near the window.  Mutimer came in, and, without closing the door, began to demand angrily why she had locked him out.  Only now she quite shook off her sleep, and could perceive that there was something unusual in his manner.  He smelt strongly of tobacco, and, as she fancied, of spirits; but it was his staggering as he moved to draw up the blind that made her aware of his condition.  She found afterwards that he had driven all the way from Belwick, and the marvel was that he had accomplished such a feat; probably his horse deserved most of the credit.  When he had pulled the blind up, he turned, propped himself against the dressing-table, and gazed at her with terribly lack-lustre eyes.  Then she saw the expression of his face change; there came upon it a smile such as she had never seen or imagined, a hideous smile that made her blood cold.  Without speaking, he threw himself forward and came towards her.  For an instant she was powerless, paralysed with terror; but happily she found utterance for a cry, and that released her limbs.  Before he could reach her, she had darted out of the room, and fled to another chamber, that which Alice had formerly occupied, where she locked herself against him.  To her surprise he did not discover her retreat; she heard him moving about the passages, stumbling here and there, then he seemed to return to his bedroom.  She wrapped herself in a counterpane, and sat in a chair till it was full morning.

He was absent for a week after that.  Of course his polling at the election had been ridiculously small compared with that of the other candidates.  When he returned he went about his ordinary occupations; he was seemingly not in his usual health, but the constant irritableness had left him.  Adela tried to bear herself as though nothing unwonted had come to pass, but Mutimer scarcely spoke when at home; if he addressed her it was in a quick, off-hand way, and without looking at her.  Adela again lived almost alone.  Her mother and Letty understood that she preferred this.  Letty had many occupations; before long she hoped to welcome her first child.  The children of New Wanley still came once a week to the Manor; Adela endeavoured to amuse them, to make them thoughtful, but it had become a hard, hard task.  Only with Mr. Wyvern did she occasionally speak without constraint, though not of course without reserve; speech of that kind she feared would never again be possible to her.  Still she felt that the vicar saw far into her life.  On some topics she was more open than she had hitherto ventured to be; a boldness, almost a carelessness, for which she herself could not account, possessed her at such times.

Late in June she received from Stella Westlake a pressing invitation to come and spend a fortnight in London.  It was like sunshine to her heart; almost without hesitation she re solved to accept it.  Her husband offered no objection, seemed to treat the proposal with indifference.  Later in the day he said: