Miss Batchelor was sadly afraid that something of this sort had been going on for long enough.

But she had not condemned Nevill Tyson wholesale and without a hearing; in these cases there are always faults on both sides.

A man as much in love with his wife as he was would never have left her without some grounds.

(I cannot think why Miss Batchelor, being so clever, didn't see through Tyson; but there is a point at which the cleverness of the cleverest woman ceases.) Anyhow, if Mrs.Nevill Tyson was as innocent as one was bound to suppose, why did she not come back to Drayton, to her mother?
That was the proper thing for her to do under the circumstances.
Have you ever sat by the seashore playing with pebbles in an idle mood?
You are not aiming at anything, you are much too lazy to aim; but some god directs your arm, and, without thinking, you hit something that, ten to one, you never would have hit if you had thought about it.

After that your peace is gone; you feel that you can never leave the spot till you have hit that particular object again, with deliberate intent.