the nuptials would be darkened if it shouldn't be settled right.

Ten days after that performance of her private undertaking Adela
began to sniff, as it were, a difference in the general air; but as
yet she was afraid to exult. It wasn't in truth a difference for the
better, so that there might be still a great tension. Her father,
since the announcement of his intended marriage, had been visibly
pleased with himself, but that pleasure now appeared to have
undergone a check. She had the impression known to the passengers on
a great steamer when, in the middle of the night, they feel the
engines stop. As this impression may easily sharpen to the sense
that something serious has happened, so the girl asked herself what
had actually occurred. She had expected something serious; but it
was as if she couldn't keep still in her cabin--she wanted to go up
and see. On the 20th, just before breakfast, her maid brought her a
message from her brother. Mr. Godfrey would be obliged if she would
speak to him in his room. She went straight up to him, dreading to
find him ill, broken down on the eve of his formidable week. This
was not the case however--he rather seemed already at work, to have
been at work since dawn. But he was very white and his eyes had a
strange and new expression. Her beautiful young brother looked
older; he looked haggard and hard. He met her there as if he had
been waiting for her, and he said at once: "Please tell me this,
Adela--what was the purpose of your visit the other morning to Mrs.
Churchley, the day I met you at her door?"

She stared--she cast about. "The purpose? What's the matter? Why
do you ask?"

"They've put it off--they've put it off a month."