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Had Hugh
spoken to her and asked her to be his wife, she could not have accepted
him, because she knew that they were both poor, and that she was not
fit to keep a poor man's house. She had declared to herself most
plainly that that must be her course but yet she was disappointed, and
talked in the knowledge that she had something to conceal.
When they were seated beneath an old riven, withered oak, looking down
upon the river, they were still divided in the same way. In seating
herself she had been very anxious not to disarrange that arrangement,
almost equally anxious not to seem to adhere to it with any special
purpose. She was very careful that there should be nothing seen in her
manner that was in any way special, but in the meantime she was
suffering an agony of trouble. He did not care for her in the least.
She was becoming sure of that. She had given all her love to a man who
had none to give her in return. As she thought of this she almost
longed for the offer of that which she knew she could not have accepted
had it been offered to her.


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