Some womanly fib preserved my father from a shock on leaving Janet's
house. She left it herself at the same time that she drove him to Lady
Sampleman's, and I found him there soon after she had gone to her
bridesmaids. A letter was for me:--

'DEAR HARRY,--I shall not live at Riversley, never go there again;
do not let it be sold to a stranger; it will happen unless you go
there. For the sake of the neighbourhood and poor people, I cannot
allow it to be shut up. I was the cause of the chief misfortune.
You never blamed me. Let me think that the old place is not dead.
Adieu.

'Your affectionate,
'JANET.'

I tore the letter to pieces, and kept them.

The aspect of the new intolerable world I was to live in after to-morrow,
paralyzed sensation. My father chattered, Lady Sampleman hushed him; she
said I might leave him to her, and I went down to Captain Welsh to bid
him good-bye and get such peace as contact with a man clad in armour
proof against earthly calamity could give.

I was startled to see little Kiomi in Mabel's company.

They had met accidentally at the head of the street, and had been friends
in childhood, Captain Welsh said, adding: 'She hates men.'

'Good reason, when they're beasts,' said Kiomi.