"I was most grateful to you when I saw you come in. And Aunt Mary was pleased too. She never shows it much; but she was."
"It is of secondary importance whether she was pleased or not. My object in returning was twofold: to help you, and also for the sake of my own character. I begin to see that unless I am careful I shall become as selfish as father."
Magdalen did not answer.
"The aunts never do things like other people," continued Bessie. "I found Aunt Aggie standing, eating a bun, just outside the drawing-room door. She was quite flurried when I came up, and said she wanted to see my fossils, but would rather look at them another day."
CHAPTER X
La vie est un instrument dont on commence toujours par jouer faux.
Wentworth and Fay did not follow Colonel Bellairs and Magdalen back to the house. When they reached the end of the avenue they turned back silently by mutual consent, and retraced their steps down it.
Presently they reached the trunk of the tree where Fay had been sitting with Magdalen.
Fay sank down upon it once more, white and exhausted. He sat down at a little distance from her.