Frederic was interrupted in the reading of it and slipped it into the pocket of his coat. His long absences had begun to stir jealousy in his wife. She was spying on him. She found the letter, her jealousy burst into flame, and thereafter was no peace in Frederic's house, nor any moment of sweetness and ease. Once more, with horrible hypocrisy, Jessie resumed her habit of walking with her husband to the little iron gate in the morning, and meeting him there in the evening, and the old ladies and gentlemen, who had been a little anxious, peered through their windows and smiled their blessings. Mrs. Folyat always said that Frederic's house reminded her of Eden before the Fall. XXXI NEWS FROM MINNA _"Sir" cries Adams, "I assure you she is as innocent as myself."_ JOSEPH ANDREWS. MRS. FOLYAT found the position of a grandmother entirely to her liking--the maximum of opportunity for beatific clucking with no responsibility. Annette had three children, Gertrude two, and Minna two, and Mrs. Folyat had already a large collection of their sayings for quotation in company, the most popular being an ode addressed by Annette's second boy to Mr. Gladstone, who had visited our town several times when its allegiance to the Liberal cause began to waver. Minna brought her two children to stay in Burdley Park. They came for a fortnight and stayed four months. They would have stayed longer but that Francis began to be anxious and, after a good deal of cogitation, shyly questioned Minna as to her husband's doings. "Basil is having a bad year," said Minna. "We're horribly poor sometimes. Rents in London are so dear." "Even so," said Francis, "it seems hardly wise to leave him for so long." "We have rows." Minna seemed to be quite cheerful about it. "Poor people always do have rows. They get so afraid, that they can't enjoy anything else." "I was beginning to think that something serious might have happened." "Oh, no. I'm still Basil's 'darling wife' when he writes to me, and he is my 'devoted husband.'" "Marriage," said Francis, "is very difficult." "Of course it is, to anybody who isn't an angel like you. . . . I'll go back and try again." Francis sucked at his pipe thoughtfully. "I oughtn't to tell you this," he said, "but Annette ran away once." "Did she?" "Yes, after breakfast. She was back again in time to give Bennett his tea." * * * Two days later Minna returned to London. The day after she had gone, Basil appeared with a drawn, miserable face. He asked Francis if he might speak to him, and Francis, quaking, led him into the study. Basil said he had been abroad. Minna had run away from him with the children.