When the day came on which Lord Forestfield's petition was to be heard, May had the uncomfortable feeling of knowing that all round her were thoroughly aware of what was going on. The first post brought her a letter from Mrs. Ingram, written in charming spirits and in the most playful manner, telling her a large circle of her quondam friends who were at Hombourg often talked of her trouble, and suggesting to her, under the circumstances, the advisability of 'keeping up her pecker.' It was plain, too, that the coming event had been duly discussed in the lower regions; for although the girl who had come with her from Seamore-place, and had ever since remained in most faithful attendance on her mistress, actually said nothing, it was evident, by her extra care and solicitude, that she was endeavouring to show her sympathy with her mistress. The worthy landlady, however, showed no such reticence; she speedily found an excuse for making her way into May's presence, and when there could not refrain from half-direct allusion, half-soliloquising reference to the important events of the day; allusion which took the form of a kind of inward prayer that all things might go right, and references in which a certain 'poor lamb' played a conspicuous part. A few months since May would have shrunk from and repelled these intrusions upon her privacy, however well intentioned they might have been; but now, though they caused her a certain sense of humiliation, she accepted them as they were meant, and took care to show no signs of annoyance. The receipt of the letter from Mrs. Ingram had rather astonished her; she had been so long removed from the reach of her former companions that she imagined herself forgotten by them, as indeed she was for all good or charitable purposes; but the list of cases for hearing in the Divorce Court is one of the portions of the newspaper which these people read, and when they found the Forestfield trial among them, being generally dull and at a loss for conversation, they were glad to revive the recent scandal. All that day May sat as though in a dream, thinking over the past and wondering what was to become of her in the future, which, as it seemed to her, was to open in complete novelty from the time the judge's decision was given. Up to the time, however disgraced and degraded she might be, she was in the eye of the law Lord Forestfield's wife. After that--nothing; nor maid, nor wife, nor widow. Her lawyer had explained to her that if the decree were granted it would only be temporary and provisional, and would need confirmation at a later period; but May was perfectly well aware that this confirmation was as good as ratified, and that her new career was virtually to commence from that date.