sleep with which our little life is rounded may have such dreams this letter not only filled its with sad thoughts on mary s account but on that of the writer she was moved to go down to and comfort � so far as it lay in her power to do that unhappy pair it also increased in her the yearning she had long entertained to that dear old town by the sea where she had first looked real happiness in the face perhaps in the summer if matters went as well with her as they promised to do this would be possible how delightful it would be to exchange the heat and dust and noise of the town for the fresh breezes of quiet how charmed aunt jane would be with it dreadful as mary s loss must for the present appear to her she would have a far happier hfe with mrs than she had ever had at home if only was spared to them � a momentous if indeed for as to any complete hope of recovery that seemed farther off from the poor lad than ever sat down and wrote a long letter of to mary full of genuine love and sympathy but not with the complete she would have wished she respected mrs s character and intensely pitied her but her heart had never been attracted to her as it had been towards her daughter she had been one of those women who live and suffer for their own only the of whose sympathy cling to what is immediately near them b k is i beyond it nevertheless mis i wc � � t s the heir of the ages because of her she felt very for society and much regretted that mrs and herself had promised to accompany mr and his sister to the opera that evening but a box had been placed at his disposal a circumstance which did not often occur and she knew that her absence would greatly disappoint him how often it happens that we attend scenes of gaiety from reasons altogether with their attractions though our presence is always taken as a sign of there is a certain eloquent divine of the english church against whom it is cast up to this day that he used to play cards at college on a sunday the statement is true but so far as it an accusation false grave even in his he all games and from them but one of his friends fell ill and to ease his pain would often play at on week days he had plenty of companions to play with him but on sundays he found it to find one whereupon the divine volunteered to be his an act of self sacrifice that has cost him more than he was aware of at the time or that being a man of sense he had thought possible but which nevertheless he has never regretted if the eye of observation the rows of a crowded theatre it is not difficult to discover those who have come to be amused from that large who have no such object in view but who find themselves there from force of circumstances there are as grave faces to be found in boxes as in unmoved by what is going on upon the stage they are in some drama of real life which is being within them and only when with silence as the curtain falls do they become conscious of their surroundings it was in this frame of mind that found herself seated by mr that evening at the opera he addressed her more than once but it was with difficulty that she compelled her attention to what he said her rarely sought the stage but wandered over the house the comparative monotony of which allowed her thoughts more freedom the loud notes of the singers reached her ears but penetrated no further the of her brain were closed to them her thoughts were now in the chamber of death at hall now upon the windy downs it looked upon and now on the summit of battle hill with the far marsh and endless sea i i� t s b j only a change a small portion of her life had been spent yet its chief events had lain there her greatest happiness had come to her there and also her greatest misery the shock of it she knew had changed the whole course of her existence and the remembrance of it still filled her with pain and shame she was now on the of alone the wild waste of water cold and grey around her a few were in the evening sky and uttering at intervals a wild and cry when suddenly the scene vanished with the of a view and she became aware of two black spots � an opera glass was being at her from the opposite box she gazed mechanically at its inmates one was a thin man still young but with all the premature signs of age so terrible was the alteration his mode of life had wrought in him since she had seen him last that she would perhaps have failed to recognise him as mr but for his companion who held the glass and was pointing it at her still with insolent it was impossible to mistake for any other man chapter critics the vision which miss dart had seen in the would not under ordinary circumstances perhaps have much disturbed her it was not as if she still nourished a single sentimental regret in connection with he had power only to disgust not to wound her but as it happened the meeting had taken place when she was nervous and and though she contrived to conceal its occurrence from her friends it seriously affected her the knowledge that this man was in london and might possibly be again brought face to face with her 