"I'm a dreadfully blunt creature, forgive me, but I feel sometimes as if my wits are deserting me in this out-of-the-way place." "We have only been married six months," said Justin. "I was a widower for eight years. Why haven't we come across each other all these years?" "Why? Because you won't take the trouble to come twelve miles to see an old pal. You're never at home. I hear you live on a yacht. Have you got tired of the sea? And are you settling down now that you have such a charming wife?" "I won't make any promises," said Justin lightly. "Are you living in this great house all alone?" She shook her head. "Ah, I shall soon be turned out like a beggar in the street. Haven't you heard? Hatty has got hold of it in her sly way, and is foreclosing the mortgage. I suppose you haven't a few odd thousands you could lend me? No? It's driving me mad. I lie awake at night and plan and plan. My luck has deserted me. If I put on any horse now, I'm sure to lose. I've got rid of all the silver to Lambert in town. I could bear leaving the old place if anyone but Hatty was going to be the owner. Can't think how she has squeezed together so much money. Isn't she a heartless wretch to be turning her only sister out into the world, perhaps to die in the union! I'm penniless, my lawyer tells me. The small farms I have sold to pay my way have dropped into Hatty's hands." "You should patch it up with her, and both live here together," said Justin. "I'm willing, but she's the aggrieved party. Says I drove her out once, and now it is my turn!" Miss Maybrick produced a rather dirty handkerchief and wiped her eyes, but she did not give way to tears. "I wish I could give you some tea, but I have none myself till supper-time. I can't keep maids in this desolate house. I've only got one old woman and her nephew attending upon me. It isn't worth while to worry over an establishment if I'm to be turned out of it. Now I've made my moan. Tell me the news of the neighbourhood." Justin chatted away very pleasantly to her. Anstice for the most part was a listener, but when they were taking their leave of her, Miss Maybrick begged Anstice to come and see her again. "If you have a car, twelve miles is nothing, and you could take me out for a turn. I have no conveyance of any kind, and shall soon be a bedridden cripple. I'm sure you and I would get on together. I love your dimples, and your smile. Will you come?" "Indeed I will," Anstice promised her. "I feel," she said to her husband as they were driving home together, "as if it is to be my mission to drag people out of their loneliness in these Fells. I've had a try with a young life, and now this is an old life. What a wonderful thing the love of home and possessions is to some people! Miss Maybrick would be so much more comfortable in a small modern house amongst neighbours. But she clings to that gloomy old house as if it were a veritable paradise."