Instead of a casual ride, involving a meeting with a few old acquaintances, as he had represented to her, he had been engaged that day in an assignation with Mrs.Fairmile, arranged beforehand, and carefully concealed from his wife.

Miss Farmer had seen them coming out of a wood together hand in hand! In the public road, this!--not even so much respect for appearances as might have dictated the most elementary reticence and decency.

The case was so clear that it sickened her; she shivered with cold and nausea as she lay there by the now glowing fire which yet gave her no physical comfort.

Probably in the past their relation had gone much farther than Roger had ever confessed to his wife.

Mrs.Fairmile was a woman who would stick at nothing.