I want to tell you this because so many people knew of our engagement, and I'm afraid his coming back like this may cause a lot of silly, vulgar talk." Miss Pendarth was more touched than she would have cared to admit even to herself.

"You can count on me, my dear," she said gravely, "and may I say, Betty, that I feel sure you're right in feeling that you would have been most unhappy with him ?" As Betty walked on to the post office she was glad that _that_ little ordeal was over.
* * * * * John Tosswill was one of those men who instinctively avoid and put off as long as may be, a difficult or awkward moment.

That was perhaps one reason why he had not made a better thing of his life.

So his wife was not surprised when, after luncheon, he observed rather nervously that he was going out, and that she must tell Godfrey Radmore how sorry he was not to be there to welcome him.
As she remained silent, he added, rather shamefacedly:--"I'll be back in time to have a few words with him before dinner." Poor Janet! She still loved her husband as much as she had done in the days when he, the absent-minded, gentle, refined scholar, made his way into her heart.

Nay, in a sense, she loved him more, for he had become entirely dependent on her.