Secretly within herself, Agnes said again that this would kill her--secretly Rose murmured that her heart was like to break; and from the solemn calm of patience they descended into the burning fever of constant anxiety, of hourly jealous fear and watching; but Martha’s warning and the constant desire to see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, what Harry did and said, preserved them from the bodily maladies which might have attended this feverish strain of heart and mind. They were one in their anxieties, their thoughts, their fears; yet none could trust the other to report for her what was every day’s state--none could afford to be ill, or take shelter in bed or chamber. Day by day they watched, and night by night kept vigils, taking only such sleep as nature compelled. And Harry, poor Harry! went on sinking, neglecting the love which in his real heart was dearer to him a hundred times, than all the objects he pursued in his infatuation. Like a man on the smooth incline of some frightful downright slope, he seemed to lose all power after the first impetus was given, and went sheer down without a pause or stay. Poor Harry! if he was sullen sometimes, at other some there came to him bursts of exceeding tenderness, remorseful and pathetic, as if his better angel was weeping within him, over his ruin; but still he went down--clutching at the flowers which waved over the edge of the precipice, and darting down its rapid incline with their torn blossoms in his hand; but the downward progress was never stayed. The next day after Sir John Dunlop’s unfortunate party, Harry, heated and defiant, took his builder with him to visit the cottages at Maidlin. Harry desired to see the finest plans, the best models, and to plant such an exotic English village as great lords make for playthings, on that part of Maidlin which bordered on his estate. “Don’t mind uniformity--don’t take any pains to make it correspond with the other half,” said Harry, in excitement and anger. “Let Sir John Dunlop have pigsties if he likes for _his_ men. All I care about is my share, and you must spare no pains on that.” “But the expense, Allenders?” said the builder, with perplexity and disconcertment, “it’s sure to take a heap of money.” “Never mind the money,” said Harry loftily, “that is my concern--yours is to make a handsome village on this side of the Cross, and the other houses can be pulled down afterwards; let me have plans and estimates as soon as they can be prepared, and see that you are not content with inferior models. Let Sir John look to his own; I have nothing to do with that.” “Very well, Allenders,” said the man doubtfully, “very well; I’ll see about the plans, and if ye’re pleased, and no scared wi’ the expense, we may soon win to--but it’ll take a lot of siller.”