His discovery of it at length was not the only event of the day which came just too late for the happiness of one with whose fortunes we are concerned.
A little after dark, when the bell was ringing which summoned Mutimer's workpeople to the tea provided for them, Hubert Eldon was approaching the village by the road from Agworth: he was on foot, and had chosen his time in order to enter Wanley unnoticed.

His former visit, when he was refused at the Walthams' door, had been paid at an impulse; he had come down from London by an early train, and did not even call to see his mother at her new house in Agworth.

Nor did ho visit her on his way back; he walked straight to the railway station and took the first train townwards.

To-day he came in a more leisurely way.

It was certain news contained in a letter from his mother which brought him, and with her he spent some hours before starting to walk towards Wanley.
'I hear,' Mrs.Eldon had written, 'from Wanley something which really surprises me.