"I neither like him nor dislike him. But he offers me protection and a good home."
"To be free from worry is a great thing," he answered, looking away across the distant landscape; and then he thought of Dorothy Hamblyn, and wondered if love and romance were as much to a woman as to a man.
"Yes, freedom from worry is doubtless a great thing," she said, after a long pause, "but is it the greatest and best?"
But she waited in vain for an answer. Ralph was thinking of something else.
CHAPTER XXXIV
A FRESH PAGE
William Menire got up early on Monday morning and helped to tidy up the shop before breakfast. He was not sorry that the working week had begun again. Work left him very little time for brooding and introspection. He had been twice to church the previous day, but he could not remember a word of the sermons. His own thoughts had drowned the voice of the preacher.
"I hope I shall have a busy week," he said to himself, as he helped his apprentice to take down the shutters. "The less I think the happier I shall be."
During breakfast the postman called. There was only one delivery per day, and during Sunday there was no delivery at all.