They had reached a dip in the ground which hid the wayside cottage where the gig with Susannah's friends was drawn up. She had looked for the expression of greater resentment from him, but he had cursed neither fate nor Saunders. He spoke of Catherine's desertion of him almost as if it had happened to some one else. There was no excitement in his manner, even little concern; and, for a man who had so few scruples about strong measures when they suited him, he seemed to accept his defeat with curious calmness. If he had flung away from his father's door with every sign of uncalculating bitterness, he was different now. She told herself with triumph that he had taken Catherine's measure at last. Perhaps Susannah paid too little heed to those inconsistencies in him which surprised others. As they parted she held out her hand and looked up at him with half-closed, half-mocking eyes. "Ah--you'll forget her in time, Heber," she said, her fingers clinging to his as he touched them. She raised her face till it was close to his own. He thrust her away with one short, frightfully definite word. When she got into the gig a few minutes afterwards she was as white as a sheet. CHAPTER VI CATHERINE OPENS THE GATE CHAPTER VI CATHERINE OPENS THE GATE TEN days had passed since the sturdy widow led her guest across the threshold, and Catherine, with the remains of a badly twisted ankle, was still under her roof. She had been molested by nobody. One of her two lovers supposed her to be with the other; Mrs. Job did not know where she was; and Susannah, equally ignorant, was only interested in knowing where she was not. The attraction of opposites had done its work between Mrs. Cockshow and her housemate, for the two women were excellent friends. The human-heartedness of the elder one, and her permanent fancy for other people's business, made her deaf when Catherine began to speak of leaving the place. She was still very lame and the toll-woman was right when she took Pharaoh to witness that to travel on foot would be insanity. Besides which, where was she going to? The question was unanswerable; and finally it was settled between them that the cleaning of the house, the cooking, and the minding of that mob of fowls which dwelt at the bottom of the garden should devolve upon Catherine, indefinitely, in return for her keep.