Thereupon Shadrach, fearing that he had been guilty of an enormity, explained that if his letter had pained Joanna it must be owing to a misunderstanding, since he had thought it would be a relief to her.

If otherwise, he would hold himself bound by his word, and she was to think of the letter as never having been written.
Next morning he received an oral message from the young woman, asking him to fetch her home from a meeting that evening.

This he did, and while walking from the Town Hall to her door, with her hand in his arm, she said: 'It is all the same as before between us, isn't it, Shadrach?
Your letter was sent in mistake ?' 'It is all the same as before,' he answered, 'if you say it must be.' 'I wish it to be,' she murmured, with hard lineaments, as she thought of Emily.
Shadrach was a religious and scrupulous man, who respected his word as his life.

Shortly afterwards the wedding took place, Jolliffe having conveyed to Emily as gently as possible the error he had fallen into when estimating Joanna's mood as one of indifference..