"I fancied you left them early; I thought I saw you cross the garden, as if coming from the plateau," she said, resolving to speak of the matter which had so puzzled her. "We did not leave the dining-room until eleven o'clock." "Well--it was very strange. I was standing at this window, and certainly saw some one exactly like you; the same figure, the same face; but not in the same dress. He seemed to have on gaiters and a velveteen coat, and a low broad-brimmed hat, very ugly. What should you say it could have been?" "I should say that you were dreaming." "I was wide awake. It was just before that mist came on," she added. "Ah, the fault must have lain in the mist. I have known it come as a mirage occasionally, bringing deception and confusion." Did he really mean it? It seemed so, for there was seriousness on his face as he spoke. Quitting the room, he descended the stairs, and made his way to the fields. In the four-acre mead--as it was called in common parlance on the farm--he came upon Richard watching the hay-makers. Richard wished him good morning; abroad early, it was the first time he had seen his father that day. "What was the failure, Dick?" asked the justice. "Fog," shortly answered Richard. "Couldn't see the light." Mr. Thornycroft nodded. "Are we to have a repetition, sir, of yesterday's dinner table?" resumed Richard. "If so, I think the sooner your wife is requested to take up her residence somewhere else, the better." "You will not have it again. Sinnett holds my orders, and my wife has been made aware she does. There's no need for you to put yourself out." With the injunction, spoken rather testily, Mr. Thornycroft left him. But a little later, when he met Isaac, he voluntarily entered on the subject; hinting his vexation at the past, promising that it would never again occur, almost as if he were tendering an apology for the accident. "I'm afraid I made a mistake, Ikey; I'm afraid I made a mistake; but I meant it for the best." It was ever thus. To his second son Mr. Thornycroft's behaviour was somewhat different from what it was to his eldest. It could not be said that he paid him more deference: but it was to Isaac he generally spoke of business, when speaking was needed; if an opinion was required, Isaac's was sought in preference to Richard's. It was just as though Isaac had been the eldest son. That Richard had brought this on himself, by his assumption of authority, was quite probable: and the little preference seemed to spring from the justice involuntarily. The evening supper took place, and the guests were consoled by the ample table for the scantiness of the previous dinner. My lady was not invited to join it; nothing appeared further from Mr. Thornycroft's thoughts than to have ladies at table. She spent a solitary sort of evening; Mary Anne was at Mrs. Wilkinson's, taking leave of Miss Derode.