‘No,’ said Albinia, ’I ought to stay here, and if you judge it right, Maurice must go.  I’ll go and speak to Susan.’

And away she ran, for she had no power just then to speak in a wifely manner.  It was not easy to respect a man in a panic so extremely inconvenient.

He was resolved on an immediate start, and the next few hours were spent in busy preparation, and in watching lest the excited Lucy should frighten her sister.  Albinia tried to persuade Mr. Kendal at least to sleep at Fairmead that night, and after watching him drive off, she hurried, dashing away the tears that would gather again and again in her eyes, to hold council with the Dusautoys on the best means of stopping the course of the malady, by depriving it of its victims.

She had a quiet snug evening with Sophy, whom she had so much interested in the destitution of the sick children as to set her to work at some night-gear for them, and she afterwards sat long over the fire trying to read to silence the longing after the little soft cheek that had never yet been laid to rest without her caress, and foreboding that Mr. Kendal would return from his dark solitary drive with his spirits at the lowest ebb.

So late that she had begun to hope that Winifred had obeyed her behest and detained him, she heard his step, and before she could run to meet him, he had already shut himself into the study.

She was at the door in a moment; she feared he had thought her self-willed in the morning, and she was the more bent on rousing him.  She knocked—­she opened the door.  He had thrown himself into his arm-chair, and was bending over the dreary, smouldering, sulky log and white ashes, and his face, as he raised his head, was as if the whole load of care and sorrow had suddenly descended again.

‘I am sorry you sat up,’ was of course his beginning, conveying anything but welcome; but she knew that this only meant that he was in a state of depression.  She took hold of his hand, chilled with holding the reins, told him of the good fire in the morning-room, and fairly drew him up-stairs.

There the lamp burnt brightly, and the red fire cast a merry glow over the shining chintz curtains, and the two chairs drawn so cosily towards the fire, the kettle puffing on the hearth, and Albinia’s choice little bed-room set of tea-china ready on the small table.  The cheerfulness seemed visibly to diffuse itself over his face, but he still struggled to cherish his gloom, ’Thank you, but I would not have had you take all this trouble, my dear.’

’It would be a great deal more trouble if you caught a bad cold.  I meant you to sleep at Fairmead.’

’Yes, they pressed me very kindly, but I could not bear not to come home.’

‘And how did Maurice comport himself?’

’He talked to the horse and then went to sleep, and he was not at all shy with his aunt after the first.  He watched the children, but had not begun to play with them.  Still I think he will be quite happy with Lucy there, and I hope it will not be for long.’