Adela and her husband did not return from Belwick till eight o’clock in the evening.  In the first place Mr. Yottle had to be sent for from a friend’s house in the country, where he was spending Sunday; then there was long waiting for a train back to Agworth.  The Rodmans, much puzzled to account for the disorder, postponed dinner.  Adela, however, dined alone, and but slightly, though she had not eaten since breakfast.  Then fatigue overcame her.  She slept an unbroken sleep till sunrise.

On going down next morning she found ’Arry alone in the dining-room; he was standing at the window with hands in pocket, and, after a glance round, averted his face again, a low growl his only answer to her morning salutation.  Mr. Rodman was the next to appear.  He shook hands as usual.  In his ‘I hope you are well?’ there was an accent of respectful sympathy.  Personally, he seemed in his ordinary spirits.  He proceeded to talk of trifles, but in such a tone as he might have used had there been grave sickness in the house.  And presently, with yet lower voice and a smile of good-humoured resignation, he said—­

‘Our journey, I fear, must be postponed.’

Adela smiled, not quite in the same way, and briefly assented.

‘Alice is not very well,’ Rodman then remarked.  ’I advised. her to have breakfast upstairs.  I trust you excuse her?’

Mutimer made his appearance.  He just nodded round, and. asked, as he seated himself at table—­

‘Who’s been letting Freeman loose?  He’s running about the garden.’

The dog furnished a topic for a few minutes’ conversation, then there was all but unbroken silence to the end of the meal.  Richard’s face expressed nothing in particular, unless it were a bad night.  Rodman kept up his smile, and, eating little himself, devoted himself to polite waiting upon Adela.  When he rose from the table, Richard said to his brother—­

‘You’ll go down as usual.  I shall be at the office in half-an-hour.’

Adela presently went to the drawing-room.  She was surprised. to find Alice sitting there.  Mrs. Rodman had clearly not enjoyed the unbroken rest which gave Adela her appearance of freshness and calm; her eyes were swollen and red, her lips hung like those of a fretful child that has tired itself with sobbing, her hair was carelessly rolled up, her attire slatternly.  She sat in sullen disorder.  Seeing Adela, she dropped her eyes, and her. lips drew themselves together.  Adela hesitated to approach her, but was moved to do so by sheer pity.

‘I’m afraid you’ve had a bad night,’ she said kindly.

‘Yes, I suppose I have,’ was the ungracious reply.

Adela stood before her for a moment, but could find nothing else to say.  She was turning when Alice looked up, her red eyes almost glaring, her breast shaken with uncontrollable passion.

‘I think you might have had some consideration,’ she exclaimed.  ’If you didn’t care to speak a word for yourself, you might have thought about others.  What are we to do, I. should like to know?’