Twelve months later, Melrose had practically forgotten that he had ever
known her. He returned for the winter, to Threlfall, and entered upon a
course of life which gradually made him the talk and wonder of the
countryside. The rooms occupied by Netta and her child were left just as
he had found them when he returned after her flight. He had turned the
key on them then, and nobody had since entered them. Tyson wondered
whether it was sentiment, or temper; and gave it for the latter.

The years passed away. Melrose's hair turned from black to gray; Thyrza
married a tradesman in Carlisle and presented him with a large family;
the Dixons, as cook and manservant, gradually fitted themselves more and
more closely to the queer conditions of life in the Tower, and grew old
in the service of a master whose eccentricities became to them, in
process of time, things to be endured without comment, like disagreeable
facts of climate. In Dixon, his Methodist books, his Bible, and his
weekly chapel maintained those forces of his character which were--and
always continued to be--independent of Melrose; and Melrose knew his own
interests well enough not to interfere with an obstinate man's religion.
While Tyson, after five years, passed on triumphantly to a lucrative
agency in the Dukeries, having won a reputation for tact and patience in
the impossible service of a mad master, which would carry him through
life. Melrose, being Melrose, found it hopeless to replace him
satisfactorily; and, as he continued to buy land greedily year after
year, the neglected condition of his immense estate became an
ever-increasing scandal to the county.

Meanwhile, for some years after the departure of Netta, Lady Tatham was
obliged for reason of health to spend the winters on the Riviera, and she
and her boy were only at Duddon for the summer months. Intercourse