with him the the waiting supper position in which she was placed would he call upon her on sunday afternoon when she was sure to be alone she wrote on what a you are i expected to find my old still but i was quite awed in the presence of such a citizen of the world did i seem rusty and ah � you seemed so once to me tender words the old was in them she said sunday afternoon and it was now only saturday morning he wished she had said to day that short revival of her image had to sudden heat feelings that had almost been whatever she might have to explain as to her position � and it was awkwardly no doubt � he could not give her up miss or mrs what mattered it � she was the same he did not go outside the inn all saturday he had no wish to see or do anything but to wait the coming interview so he smoked and read the local newspaper of the previous week and himself in the chimney comer in the evening he felt that he could remain indoors no longer and the moon being near the full he started from the inn on foot in the same direction as that of yesterday with the view of contemplating the old village and its and hovering round her house under the of night with a stout stick in his hand he climbed over the five miles of in a comparatively short space of time had seen many strange lands and trodden many strange ways since he last walked that path but as he he seemed wonderfully like his old self and had not the slightest difficulty in finding the way in descending to the the streams perplexed him a little some of the old having been removed but he ultimately got across the larger water courses and pushed on to the village avoiding her residence for the moment lest s the waiting supper she should him and think he had not respected the time of her appointment he found his way to the churchyard and first ascertained where lay the two relations he had left alive at his departure then he observed the of other inhabitants with whom he had been well acquainted till by degrees he seemed to be in the society of all the elder population as he had known the place side by side as they had lived in his day here were they now they had moved house in mass but no tomb of mr was visible though as he had lived at the house it would have been natural to find it here in truth was more anxious to discover that than anything being curious to know how long he had been dead seeing from the glimmer of a light in the church that somebody was there cleaning for sunday he entered and looked upon the walls as well as he could but there was no monument to her husband though one had been erected to the squire addressed the young man who was sweeping i don t see any or tomb to the late mr o no sir you won t see that said the young man � why pray because he s not buried here he s not anywhere as far as we know in short perhaps he s not buried at all and between ourselves perhaps he s alive sank an inch shorter ah he answered then you don t know the peculiar sir i am a stranger here � as to late years mr was a traveller � an � it was his calling you may have heard his name as such i remember recalled the fact that this the waiting supper very bent of mr s was the to his own well when he married he came and lived here with his wife and his wife s father and said he would travel no more but after a time he got weary of quiet here and weary of her � he was not a good husband to the young lady by any means � and he himself again to his old trick of � with her money away he went quite out of the realm of human foot into the of asia and never was heard of more he was murdered it is said but nobody knows though as that was nine years ago he s dead enough in principle if not in his widow lives quite for between her husband and her brother she s left in very lean age went back to the buck s head without hovering round her dwelling this then was the explanation which she had wanted to make not dead but missing how could he have expected that the first fair promise of happiness held out to him would remain she had said that she was free and she was free no doubt moreover from her tone and manner he felt himself justified in concluding that she would be willing to run the risk of a with him in the of her husband s existence even if that husband lived his return was not a event to judge from his character a man who could spend her money on his own personal adventures would not be anxious to b her poverty after such a lapse of time well the prospect was not so as it had seemed but could he even now give up vii two months more brought the year nearly to a close and found long tenant of a spacious house in the market town nearest to a man the waiting supper of means genial character and a bachelor he was an object of great interest to his neighbours and to his neighbours wives and daughters but he took uttle note of this and had made it his business to go twice a week no matter 