Never had they been so late! Half-past seven, and the shutters still up! So said Margaret as they hurried downstairs. But Esther thought only of the meeting with William. She had seen him cleaning boots in the pantry as they passed. He waited till Margaret left her, till he heard the baize door which separated the back premises from the front of the house close, then he ran to the kitchen, where he expected to find Esther alone. But meeting his mother he mumbled some excuse and retreated. There were visitors in the house, he had a good deal to do that morning, and Esther kept close to Mrs. Latch; but at breakfast it suddenly became necessary that she should answer him, and Sarah saw that Esther and William were no longer friends. "Well I never! Look at her! She sits there over her tea-cup as melancholy as a prayer-meeting." "What is it to you?" said William. "What's it to me? I don't like an ugly face at the breakfast-table, that's all." "I wouldn't be your looking-glass, then. Luckily there isn't one here." In the midst of an angry altercation, Esther walked out of the room. During dinner she hardly spoke at all. After dinner she went to her room, and did not come down until she thought he had gone out with the carriage. But she was too soon, William came running down the passage to meet her. He laid his hand supplicatingly on her arm. "Don't touch me!" she said, and her eyes filled with dangerous light. "Now, Esther! ...Come, don't lay it on too thick!" "Go away. Don't speak to me!" "Just listen one moment, that's all." "Go away. If you don't, I'll go straight to Mrs. Barfield." She passed into the kitchen and shut the door in his face. He had gone a trifle pale, and after lingering a few moments he hurried away to the stables, and Esther saw him spring on the box. As it was frequent with Esther not to speak to anyone with whom she had had a dispute for a week or fifteen days, her continued sulk excited little suspicion, and the cause of the quarrel was attributed to some trifle. Sarah said-- "Men are such fools. He is always begging of her to forgive him. Just look at him--he is still after her, following her into the wood-shed."