 mother after greeting her. »Now I
could eat a little more.«
    They sat down to the repeated meal, and he went on in a low, anxious voice,
apparently imagining that Thomasin had not yet come downstairs, »What's this I
have heard about Thomasin and Mr. Wildeve?«
    »It is true in many points,« said Mrs. Yeobright quietly; »but it is all
right now, I hope.« She looked at the clock.
    »True?«
    »Thomasin is gone to him to-day.«
    Clym pushed away his breakfast. »Then there is a scandal of some sort, and
that's what's the matter with Thomasin. Was it this that made her ill?«
    »Yes. Not a scandal: a misfortune. I will tell you all about it, Clym. You
must not be angry, but you must listen, and you'll find that what we have done
has been done for the best.«
    She then told him the circumstances. All that he had known of the affair
before he returned from Paris was that there had existed an attachment between
Thomasin and Wildeve, which his mother had at first discountenanced, but had
since, owing to the arguments of Thomasin, looked upon in a little more
favourable light. When she, therefore, proceeded to explain all he was greatly
surprised and troubled.
    »And she determined that the wedding should be over before you came back,«
said Mrs. Yeobright, »that there might be no chance of her meeting you, and
having a very painful time of it. That's why she has gone to him; they have
arranged to be married this morning.«
    »But I can't understand it,« said Yeobright, rising. »'Tis so unlike her. I
can see why you did not write to me after her unfortunate return home. But why
didn't you let me know when the wedding was going to be - the first time?«
    »Well, I felt vexed with her just then. She seemed to me to be obstinate;
and when I found that you were nothing in her mind I vowed that she should be
nothing in yours. I felt that she was only my niece after all; I told her she
might marry, but that I should take no interest in it, and should not bother you
about it either.«
    »It wouldn't have been bothering me. Mother, you did wrong.«
    »I thought it might disturb you in your business, and that
