As a fact, the young lady assistants did discuss them; not in the shop—­for either one of the principal parties, or Mrs. Baines herself, was always in the shop, but elsewhere.  They discussed little else, when they were free; how she had looked at him to-day, and how he had blushed, and so forth interminably.  Yet Mrs. Baines really thought that she alone knew.  Such is the power of the ineradicable delusion that one’s own affairs, and especially one’s own children, are mysteriously different from those of others.

After Sophia’s departure Mrs. Baines surveyed her daughter and her manager at supper-time with a curious and a diffident eye.  They worked, talked, and ate just as though Mrs. Baines had never caught them weeping together in the cutting-out room.  They had the most matter-of-fact air.  They might never have heard whispered the name of love.  And there could be no deceit beneath that decorum; for Constance would not deceive.  Still, Mrs. Baines’s conscience was unruly.  Order reigned, but nevertheless she knew that she ought to do something, find out something, decide something; she ought, if she did her duty, to take Constance aside and say:  “Now, Constance, my mind is freer now.  Tell me frankly what has been going on between you and Mr. Povey.  I have never understood the meaning of that scene in the cutting-out room.  Tell me.”  She ought to have talked in this strain.  But she could not.  That energetic woman had not sufficient energy left.  She wanted rest, rest—­even though it were a coward’s rest, an ostrich’s tranquillity—­after the turmoil of apprehensions caused by Sophia.  Her soul cried out for peace.  She was not, however, to have peace.

On the very first Sunday after Sophia’s departure, Mr. Povey did not go to chapel in the morning, and he offered no reason for his unusual conduct.  He ate his breakfast with appetite, but there was something peculiar in his glance that made Mrs. Baines a little uneasy; this something she could not seize upon and define.  When she and Constance returned from chapel Mr. Povey was playing “Rock of Ages” on the harmonium—­again unusual!  The serious part of the dinner comprised roast beef and Yorkshire pudding—­the pudding being served as a sweet course before the meat.  Mrs. Baines ate freely of these things, for she loved them, and she was always hungry after a sermon.  She also did well with the Cheshire cheese.  Her intention was to sleep in the drawing-room after the repast.  On Sunday afternoons she invariably tried to sleep in the drawing-room, and she did not often fail.  As a rule the girls accompanied her thither from the table, and either ‘settled down’ likewise or crept out of the room when they perceived the gradual sinking of the majestic form into the deep hollows of the easy-chair.  Mrs. Baines was anticipating with pleasure her somnolent Sunday afternoon.

Constance said grace after meat, and the formula on this particular occasion ran thus—­