For three days I tormented myself thus, and then there came a shock which brought me cruelly to my senses.
On the fourth day after John had left us, I was walking up and down the frosty avenue just as the evening was coming on.

The sun was setting redly behind the brown wood, and blushing over the whitened fields and hedgerows.

A man came up the avenue and pulled off his hat as he approached me.

I recognised in him an Irish labourer whom I had seen working in the gardens at the Hall.
"Beg pardon, miss!" said he, "but be you Miss Margery Dacre ?" "Yes, Pat," said I."This is a fine evening, is it not?
What do you want with me ?" "Oh then, a fine evenin' it is; glory be to God!" said Pat; "but all the same, Mrs.Beatty is mortial anxious for you to step over to the Hall the soonest minute ye can, as she has somethin' very sarious to say to ye." "Step over to the Hall ?" I exclaimed.

"Do you know what o'clock it is, Pat ?" "Oh yis, miss!" said Pat; "it's three o'clock, an' the sun low, but niver fear; I'll walk behind ye ivery step o' the way, an' if as much as a hare winks at ye, he'll rue the day.