It is difficult to say what would eventually have happened to Mrs. Darrow if a knock at the front door had not then brought her face to face with another and even more stern reality. She gave a hasty peep through the window. What she saw had an effect homoeopathic in principle, though it certainly was not so in dose. It was surprise upon surprise--like curing like. What she had seen was the figure of Mrs. Parsley, and with the sight had come a great calm over her. For she hated Mrs. Parsley more than she hated anyone at the present moment. "Oh, my dear," she said, as the vicar's wife entered the room, "I _am_ so delighted--this _is_ a surprise. How _are_ you?" "It's easy to see there's not much the matter with _you_," returned her visitor, in her most aggressive manner. "Indeed I am _very_ ill," said Mrs. Darrow, in the faintest of faint voices, "if you only felt my pulse. I can hardly speak, it is so weak." "Rubbish--_that_ day'll never dawn. It's liver that's the matter with you. Liver, my dear--torpid liver. Too much to eat and too little to do!" Mrs. Darrow felt that something within her must give if this kind of thing went on. "I don't know how you can speak like that," she said. "I don't know I have a liver." "Of course you don't--if you did you'd be more careful of it. But here, _you_----" She placed both of her sinewy hands upon her enormous green umbrella, and brought it down with a thud in front of Gerald. "It's _you_ I really came to see. I heard that you were here. Nothing escapes _me_ in this village. Where is your wife?" "She appears to have escaped you, Mrs. Parsley--she is in town!" "Then she oughtn't to be. Why haven't you brought her down here to share your good fortune? She should be at the Manor House beside you." "I am shutting up the Manor House. I'm going abroad in a week." "Is that her doing or yours?" "Mine. Perhaps I had better tell you at once that my wife and I have agreed to differ. We are not living together for the present." "That means you've been doing something--what is it?" "I assure you he has been doing nothing," put in Mrs. Darrow, "except what is right. He has been very badly treated. Don't you know that----" "Mrs. Parsley knows nothing, nor is it necessary she should," said Gerald rising. "What has occurred between my wife and myself concerns us only." "Humph!" grunted Mrs. Parsley. "And where is Hilda, may I ask?" Gerald flushed. He knew what she meant to insinuate. "Mrs. Dundas is with her husband at Brampton, I believe," he replied. "And you're going abroad?--well, that's as it should be." "I'm glad you think so," said Gerald. He felt he was on rather rocky ground, and didn't altogether like it. He turned to Julia. "I must be going now," he said. "I'll see you again in a month or two. If I come across anything pretty in Paris I'll send it over. Good-bye." "Humph!" grunted Mrs. Parsley again. "Good-bye. Just a word with you, Julia. I must be off too." "Julia!"