He had, at any rate, chosen to take his meals in his own room, and as far as was remembered, had not once left the house since she had been away.

He had on two or three occasions spoken of Mr.Belton, appearing to be anxious for his coming, and asking questions as to the cattle and the work that was still going on about the place; and Clara, when she returned to his room, tried to interest him again about her cousin.

But he had in truth been too much distressed by the ill news as to Mrs.Winterfield's will to be able to rally himself, and the evening that was spent up in his room was very comfortless to both of them.

Clara had her own sorrows to bear as well as her father's, and could take no pleasant look out into the world of her own circumstances, She had gained her lover merely to lose him,--and had lost him under circumstances that were very painful to her woman's feeling.

Though he had been for one night betrothed to her as her husband, he had never loved her.