None knew--let me repeat it--what that battle had been;
none ever can know, unless they go through it themselves. In Miss
Ashton's case there was a feature some are spared--her love had been
known--and it increased the anguish tenfold. She would overcome it if she
could only forget him; but it would take time; and she would come out of
it an altogether different woman, her best hope in life gone, her heart
dead.
"What brought him down here?" mentally questioned Mr. Hillary, in an
explosion of wrath, as he watched his visitor down the street. "It will
undo all I have been doing. He, and his wife too, might have had the
grace to keep away for this year at least. I loved him once, with all his
faults; but I should like to see him in the pillory now. It has told on
him also, if I'm any reader of looks. And now, Miss Anne, you go off from
Calne to-morrow an I can prevail. I only hope you won't come across him
in the meantime."
CHAPTER XXVI.
UNDER THE TREES.
It was the same noble-looking man Calne had ever known, as he went down
the road, throwing a greeting to one and another. Lord Hartledon was not
a whit less attractive than Val Elster, who had won golden opinions from
all. None would have believed that the cowardly monster Fear was for ever
feasting upon his heart.
He came to a standstill opposite the clerk's house, looked at it for
a moment, as if deliberating whether he should enter, and crossed the
road.
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