The next day she buried him.
She was now free.
She shut up his house at Durnover Cross and returned to her lodgings at Creston.

Soon she had a letter from Vannicock, and six weeks after her husband's death her lover came to see her.
'I forgot to give you back this--that night,' he said presently, handing her the little bag she had taken as her whole luggage when leaving.
Laura received it and absently shook it out.

There fell upon the carpet her brush, comb, slippers, nightdress, and other simple necessaries for a journey.

They had an intolerably ghastly look now, and she tried to cover them.
'I can now,' he said, 'ask you to belong to me legally--when a proper interval has gone--instead of as we meant.' There was languor in his utterance, hinting at a possibility that it was perfunctorily made.

Laura picked up her articles, answering that he certainly could so ask her--she was free.