"
"Then why did you come back to it?" inquired the barrister, in surprise.
"My wife gave me no choice. She possesses a will of her own. It is the
ordinary thing, perhaps, for wives to do so."
"Some do, and some don't," observed Thomas Carr, who never flattered at
the expense of truth. "Are you going down to Hartledon?"
"Hartledon!" with a perceptible shiver. "In the mind I am in, I shall
never visit Hartledon again; there are some in its vicinity I would
rather not insult by my presence. Why do you bring up disagreeable
subjects?"
"You will have to get over that feeling," observed Mr. Carr, disregarding
the hint, and taking out his probing-knife. "And the sooner it is got
over the better for all parties. You cannot become an exile from your own
place. Are they at Calne now?"
"Yes. They were in Paris just before we left it, and there was an
encounter at Versailles. I wished myself dead; I declare I did. A day or
two after we came to England they crossed over, and went straight down to
Calne. There--don't say any more."
"The longer you keep away from Hartledon the greater effort it will cost
you to go down to it; and--"
"I won't go to Hartledon," he interrupted, in a sort of fury; "neither
perhaps would you, in my place."
"Sir," cried Mr. Carr's clerk, bustling in and addressing his master,
"you are waited for at the chambers of Serjeant Gale.
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