As it was, things appeared to go on with them just as before.

They still inhabited the villa, the wife scornful of her surroundings, and the husband driving a good horse to his shop every morning.

How he managed it all, nobody knew but himself, and whether he succeeded or not was a matter of small interest to any except his own family and his creditors.

He was a man nowise beloved, although there was something about him that carried simple people with him--for his ends, not theirs.

To those who alluded to the change, he represented it as entirely his own doing, to be rid of the interference of Miss Marston in matters of which she knew nothing.