of after dinner in a very commonplace way he was not in the least troubled with ideas nay further when called upon by his father to do so he had after something of a struggle followed the very sensible if example of the historian and while he sighed as a lover had obeyed as a son elizabeth s pride had at his desertion of her had so strongly that it hurried her as we have seen into a marriage with robert in a way she might put down all the troubles of her young life to edward s account and yet � yet the memory of first love is very strong coming in from her dreary walk on the parting half in anger from her friend on the elizabeth suffered a strange transition of feeling when she found edward s card on the hall table she had not seen him for four years she did not know anything about his present circumstances she did not even know whether he was married or single but she was filled with a longing to meet him once again to go back for a few hours at least to that pleasant easy time before she had known anything practically of sorrow or disappointment she longed to breathe the morning air again after struggling in the heat and confusion of the everything seemed to be slipping away from her just now a foolish hope a half despairing fancy that somehow a meeting with her old lover might make things clear and ch viii a sketch in black and white straight came over her elizabeth knew dimly all the while that she was the lessons of experience that she was fighting against fate that she was refusing to acknowledge an inevitable conclusion it may seem a little stupid of any person to do this and yet to my mind there is something wonderfully moving in the gallant hopeless determination with which the young fight against the hard of fact and experience they may be fools they are fools no doubt but they are fools whom one suffers gladly for love of their magnificent obstinacy and finely tempered courage elizabeth went slowly upstairs with the still in her hand she felt a little reckless � the world seemed in a way to be coming to an end the day after to morrow meanwhile she would defy fate she would do what she liked she would give herself one last chance she would see edward somehow and if nothing came of it � and in justice to poor elizabeth it must be owned that she had formed no clear idea as to what could possibly come of it � well then she thought bitterly enough she would have to own herself beaten and let the world come to an end as soon as it pleased at last said mrs frank in her clear emphatic voice as elizabeth entered the drawing room my dear elizabeth where in the name of patience have you been i have been waiting here the most interminable length of time to see you had a great power of letting mrs part ri plain daylight into the minds of other people but elizabeth was too highly wrought � too entirely occupied with her own sensations � to be awakened even by her sister in law s rapid and decided opening of the shutters just at present i have been walking down by the river she answered dear me said mrs frank doesn t it strike you that it is just a little late for you to be out walking alone i wasn t alone observed elizabeth simply oh said mrs frank with a note of in her voice she looked rather hard at elizabeth she had an impression that there was something odd about her she wondered if anything could have happened i met mr said elizabeth with the same air of indifference and abstraction and he walked back here with me a sudden cheerful seemed to take possession of s small person had come back then and just in time she hardly knew how to be sufficiently thankful she had not made a fatal mistake after all elizabeth seemed strangely but that mrs frank was charmed at � it certainly meant she argued that something had happened or was just about to happen everything was really going right then she had hardly before how dreadfully anxious s absence had made her her present sense of relief was intensely she smiled ch viii a sketch in black and white a little to herself and folded her small neat hands on her lap as she said quietly � you have an admirable indifference to public opinion really elizabeth you know the circumstances and surroundings of your walk might strike some people as slightly peculiar if had failed to awaken elizabeth at first she certainly succeeded in doing so very completely now elizabeth turned towards her with a sense of considerable annoyance what do you mean she asked quickly only that you are young and very good looking answered the other and that of course you run the risk of being talked about you know everybody does that unless they are immensely careful elizabeth had not expected this sort of open attack it seemed to her that was playing exactly the same part that mrs had played two years before it is interesting to observe how history itself but there are some experiences none of us desire particularly to go through twice even for the sake of proving the truth of that valuable saying the drawing room was warm after the cold damp air of the evening outside elizabeth felt both mentally and physically stifled she had a sense of heat and crowding and confusion no doubt her state of mind was exaggerated but hers was a nature prone to exaggeration s words all her distressing feelings she felt as though she was caught in a great 