Mrs.Goddard had clasped her small white hands over her face and had turned her head away from him against the cushion of the high backed chair.

The squire felt very uncomfortable in the dead silence, broken only by the sleet driving against the window panes with a hissing, rattling sound, and by the singing of the tea-kettle.

For some seconds, which to Juxon seemed like an eternity, Mrs.Goddard did not move.

At last she suddenly dropped her hands and looked into the squire's eyes.

He was startled by the ashen hue of her face.
"It is impossible," she said, shortly, in broken tones.