He had not spoken a word to Stella that day, and he had not the time now, for she began immediately in an eager voice and a look of fever in her eyes: "You won't try to stop me, will you?
I must go away to-morrow." Repton used more tact now than his wife had done.

He took the troubled and excited woman's hand and answered her very gently: "Of course, Stella.

You shall go when you like." "Oh, thank you," she cried, and was freed to remember the debt which she owed to these good friends of hers.

"You must think me a brute, Jane! I haven't said a word to you about all your kindness.

But--oh, you'll think me ridiculous, when you know"-- and she began to laugh and to sob in one breath.