Several of the boarders entered the parlor, and cut short the speech of Aunt Sophie.
Lilith left the room and went up to Mrs. Downie’s chamber to read over her letter again.
It was very short, merely acknowledging the receipt of the applicant’s letter, and asking for a personal interview at the time and place already specified.
Of course Lilith would keep the appointment and accept the position if it should be offered to her.
But, she asked herself, would she be justified in leaving the country, without first informing her husband and giving him the opportunity of seeking a reconciliation with her, should he desire to do so?
“I never loved you. I married you only to please my dying father. In a very few hours I shall leave this house, never to return while you desecrate it with your presence!”
These words came back to her in all their fierce, bitter, scornful cruelty. “Came back to her?” They had never left her. They smouldered in her memory always, and only blazed up in a fiery heat at the very thought of seeking any notice from the husband who had contemptuously cast her out; but whom—oh, woe—she still so deeply, so painfully loved.
No! he had turned her off, and she must not call his attention to herself in any manner. She must let him go his way, untroubled by her. As for herself, she could live—even in pain and sorrow—until she should be called away to the land of peace.
Lilith had ample time and opportunity for reflection between that Saturday night and the Monday noon when she was to wait on her possible future employer. So it was after mature deliberation that she decided to enter the service of the lady advertiser, supposing that she should be permitted to do so.
On Monday morning she set out to walk to the hotel. She arrived a few minutes before the appointed hour and sent up her card by a porter.