They two were living together without other companion in the big house,--sitting down together to dinner and to tea; but on this day hardly a dozen words were spoken between them, and those dozen were spoken with no purport.

On the Monday Captain Aylmer gave orders for the funeral, and then went away to London, undertaking to be back on the day before the last ceremony.

Clara was rather glad that he should be gone, though she feared the solitude of the big house.

She was glad that he should be gone, as she found it impossible to talk to him with ease to herself.

She knew that he was about to assume some position as protector or quasi guardian over her, in conformity with her aunt's express wish, and she was quite resolved that she would submit to no such guardianship from his hands.