She always wrote her letters with an eye to the remote contingency of their being produced in court or read in public.
This letter to Craven Kyte was a sample of her non-committal style—it compromised no one.
When she had sent it off she began to pack up her effects, in preparation for their removal, on Monday morning, to the Misses Cranes'.
Even after that work was done she could not be still. Like an uneasy beast of prey, she must needs move to and fro.
So she put on her bonnet, called a carriage and drove out to the rectory to spend the evening.
But though she was received in the most friendly manner she could not enjoy the visit. She was absent and distracted during the whole evening.
She returned late to a restless bed. And then she got up and took laudanum to put her to sleep. And this was not the first time she had had to resort to the same dangerous narcotic.
No more rest for Mary Grey!
Remorse sometimes begins before the commission of a contemplated and determined crime; repentance never. That is one difference between the two.
On Sunday morning, to keep herself actively employed, as well as to win "golden opinions," Mrs. Grey dressed herself plainly, but very becomingly, and went early to the Sunday-school at old St. John's, to offer herself as a teacher.