What he said was that I could tell you he had heard the news in Ireland, and would have come sooner, his hand being forced; but was hindered crossing by the weather, having took passage in a sailing vessel.

What news he meant he didn't say.' 'Ah, yes,' she faltered.

It was plain that the man knew nothing of her intended re-marriage.
Mechanically rising and giving him a shilling, she answered to his 'good- night,' and he withdrew, the beat of his footsteps lessening in the distance.

She was alone; but in what a solitude.
Christine stood in the middle of the hall, just as the man had left her, in the gloomy silence of the stopped clock within the adjoining room, till she aroused herself, and turning to the portmanteau and great-coat brought them to the light of the candles, and examined them.

The portmanteau bore painted upon it the initials 'J.