‘I suppose,’ she said carelessly, ’Mr. Widdowson will try to divorce his wife.’

‘I am in dread of that.  But they may have made it up.’

‘Of course you have no doubt of her guilt?’

Mary tried to understand the hard, austere face, with its touch of cynicism.  Conjecture as to its meaning was not difficult, but, in the utter absence of information, certainty there could be none.  Under any circumstances, it was to be expected that Rhoda would think and speak of Mrs. Widdowson no less severely than of the errant Bella Royston.

‘I have some doubt,’ was Miss Barfoot’s answer.  ’But I should be glad of some one else’s favourable opinion to help my charity.’

’Miss Madden hasn’t been here, you see.  She certainly would have come if she had felt convinced that her sister was wronged.’

’Unless a day or two saw the end of the trouble—­when naturally none of them would say any more about it.’

This was the possibility which occupied Rhoda’s reflections as long as she lay awake that night.

Her feelings on entering the familiar bedroom were very strange.  Even before starting for her holiday she had bidden it good-bye, and at Seascale, that night following upon the “perfect day,” she had thought of it as a part of her past life, a place abandoned for ever, already infinitely remote.  Her first sensation when she looked upon the white bed was one of disgust; she thought it would be impossible to use this room henceforth, and that she must ask Miss Barfoot to let her change to another.  Tonight she did not restore any of the ornaments which were lying packed up.  The scent of the room revived so many hours of conflict, of hope, that it caused her a sick faintness.  In frenzy of detestation she cursed the man who had so disturbed and sullied the swift, pure stream of her life.

* * *

Arromanches, in Normandy—?  On Sunday she sought the name on a map, but it was not marked, being doubtless too insignificant.  Improbable that he had gone to such a place alone; he was enjoying himself with friends, careless what became of her.  Having allowed all this time to go by he would never seek her again.  He found that her will was the equal of his own, and, as he could not rule her, she was numbered among the women who had afforded him interesting experiences, to be thought of seriously no more.

During the next week she threw herself with energy upon her work, stifling the repugnance with which at first it affected her, and seeming at length to recover the old enthusiasm.  This was the only way of salvation.  Idleness and absence of purpose would soon degrade her in a sense she had never dreamt of.  She made a plan of daily occupation, which by leaving not a vacant moment from early morning to late at night, should give her the sleep of utter weariness.  New studies were begun in the hour or two before breakfast.  She even restricted her diet, and ate only just enough to support life, rejecting wine and everything that was most agreeable to her palate.