If love did not hold him, assuredly the forms of marriage could be no restraint upon Everard; married ten times over, he would still deem himself absolutely free from any obligation save that of love.

Yet how did he think of that obligation?
He might hold it perfectly compatible with the indulgence of casual impulse.

And this (which she suspected to be the view of every man) Rhoda had no power of tolerating.

It must be all or nothing, whole faith or none whatever.
* * * In the afternoon she suffered from impatient expectancy.

If Barfoot came to-day--she imagined him somewhere in the neighbour hood, approaching Seascale as the time of his appointment drew near--would he call at her lodgings?
The address she had not given him, but doubtless he had obtained it from his cousin.