Hoping to see you both, "Believe me, "Yours sincerely, "Catherine de Clifford Bertram." Mrs.Bertram put this letter into an envelope, directed it in her dashing and lady-like hand, and then in a slow and stately fashion proceeded to walk down the avenue to the lodge.

She was always rather slow in her movements, and she was slower than usual to-day.

She scarcely owned to herself that she was tired, worried--in short, that the strong vitality within her was sapped at its foundation.
A man or a woman can often live for a long time after this operation takes place, but they are never the same again.

They go slowly, with the gait of those who are halt, through life.
Mrs.Bertram reached the lodge, and after the imperious fashion of her class did not even knock at the closed door before she lifted the latch and went in.
It was a shabby, little, tumble-down lodge.

It needed papering, and white-washing, and cleaning; in winter the roof let in rain, and the rickety, ill-fitting windows admitted the cold and wind.