 that
somebody takes her back to Treby in the buggy.«
    »I will go back with Mrs Holt,« said Esther, making an effort against
herself.
    »No, pray,« said Harold, with that kind of entreaty which is really a
decision. »Let Mrs Holt have time to rest. We shall have returned, and you can
see her before she goes. We will say good-bye for the present, Mrs Holt.«
    The poor woman was not sorry to have the prospect of rest and food,
especially for the orphin child, of whom she was tenderly careful. Like many
women who appear to others to have a masculine decisiveness of tone, and to
themselves to have a masculine force of mind, and who come into severe collision
with sons arrived at the masterful stage, she had the maternal cord vibrating
strongly within her towards all tiny children. And when she saw Dominic pick up
Job and hoist him on his arm for a little while, by way of making acquaintance,
she regarded him with an approval which she had not thought it possible to
extend to a foreigner. Since Dominic was going, Harry and old Mr Transome chose
to follow. Uncle Lingon shook hands and turned off across the grass, and thus
Esther was left alone with Harold.
    But there was a new consciousness between them. Harold's quick perception
was least likely to be slow in seizing indications of anything that might affect
his position with regard to Esther. Some time before, his jealousy had been
awakened to the possibility that before she had known him she had been deeply
interested in some one else. Jealousy of all sorts - whether for our fortune or
our love - is ready at combinations, and likely even to outstrip the fact. And
Esther's renewed confusion, united with her silence about Felix, which now first
seemed noteworthy, and with Mrs Holt's graphic details as to her walking with
him and letting him sit by her before all the town, were grounds not merely for
a suspicion, but for a conclusion in Harold's mind. The effect of this, which he
at once regarded as a discovery, was rather different from what Esther had
anticipated. It seemed to him that Felix was the least formidable person that he
could have found out as an object of interest antecedent to himself. A young
workman who had got himself thrown into prison, whatever recommendations he
might have had for a girl at a romantic age in the dreariness of Dissenting
society at Treby, could hardly be considered by Harold in the light of a rival.
Esther was too clever and
