I need not repeat my answer. It was, No! I was no more free, no more
inclined to return to Crown Anstey than I had been to remain there.

After that there was a long silence. Agatha told me herself all about
Lord Abberley; that he had been very kind to her, was very fond of her,
but she had told him our story, and he had most generously forborne to
press his suit.

Time was doing much for me; every hour was golden in its acquisition of
blanks in my life were filled by books. God sent every one the same
comfort I had.

[Transcriber's note: One or more lines appear to be missing from the
previous paragraph.]




CHAPTER XIV.


It was just three years since I had left Crown Anstey. Lord Winter told
me I should have some weeks to myself, but he was so incessantly
occupied I never liked to ask for them.

I had never seen or heard anything of Crown Anstey since I left it. At
Harden Manor all was the same, unchanged and unaltered.

One morning, when I went into the library, a letter lay waiting for me.
I saw that it was Coralie's handwriting, and my first impulse was to