They started together through a dripping world on which the skies had but just ceased to rain. On his way through the park Meynell took off his hat and walked bareheaded through the mist, evidently feeling it a physical relief to let the chill, moist air beat freely on brow and temples. Flaxman could not help watching him occasionally--the forehead with its deep vertical furrow, the rugged face, stamped and lined everywhere by travail of mind and body, and the nobility of the large grizzled head. In the voluminous cloak--of an antiquity against which Anne protested in vain--which was his favourite garb on wet days, he might have been a friar of the early time, bound on a preaching tour. The spiritual, evangelic note in the personality became--so Flaxman thought--ever more conspicuous. And yet he walked to-day in very evident trouble, without, however, allowing to this trouble any spoken expression whatever. As they neared the Forked Pond enclosure, Meynell suddenly paused. "I had forgotten--I must go first to Sandford--where indeed I am expected." "Sandford? I trust there is no fresh anxiety?" "There _is_ anxiety," said Meynell briefly. Flaxman expressed an unfeigned sympathy. "What is Miss Hester doing to-day?" "Packing, I hope. She goes to-morrow." "And you--are going to interview this fellow?" asked Flaxman reluctantly. "I have done it already--and must now do it again. This time I am going to threaten." "With anything to go upon?" "Yes. I hope at last to be able to get some grip on him; though no doubt my chances are not improved since yesterday," said Meynell, with a grim shadow of a smile, "supposing that anybody from Upcote has been gossipping at Sandford. It does not exactly add to one's moral influence to be regarded as a Pharisaical humbug." "I wish I could take the business off your shoulders!" said Flaxman, heartily. Meynell gave him a slight, grateful look. They walked on briskly to the high road, Flaxman accompanying his friend so far. There they parted, and Hugh returned slowly to the cottage by the water, Meynell promising to join him there within an hour. BOOK III CATHARINE "Such was my mother's way, learnt from Thee in the school of the heart, where Thou art Master." CHAPTER XVI