week or two, and give her time to come to her senses. She'll not
find it so easy as she thinks to let me go."

So he went past the kitchen-window in nonchalant style, and was not
seen again at Yew Nook for some weeks. How did he pass the time?
For the first day or two, he was unusually cross with all things and
people that came athwart him. Then wheat-harvest began, and he was
busy, and exultant about his heavy crop. Then a man came from a
distance to bid for the lease of his farm, which, by his father's
advice, had been offered for sale, as he himself was so soon likely
to remove to the Yew Nook. He had so little idea that Susan really
would remain firm to her determination, that he at once began to
haggle with the man who came after his farm, showed him the crop just
got in, and managed skilfully enough to make a good bargain for
himself. Of course, the bargain had to be sealed at the public-
house; and the companions he met with there soon became friends
enough to tempt him into Langdale, where again he met with Eleanor
Hebthwaite.

How did Susan pass the time? For the first day or so, she was too
angry and offended to cry. She went about her household duties in a
quick, sharp, jerking, yet absent way; shrinking one moment from
Will, overwhelming him with remorseful caresses the next. The third
day of Michael's absence, she had the relief of a good fit of crying;
and after that, she grew softer and more tender; she felt how harshly
she had spoken to him, and remembered how angry she had been. She
made excuses for him. "It was no wonder," she said to herself, "that
he had been vexed with her; and no wonder he would not give in, when
she had never tried to speak gently or to reason with him. She was
to blame, and she would tell him so, and tell him once again all that