 with
a look of surprised recognition.
    »Well, it really is you!« she exclaimed, laughing and looking down.
    »And it is really you!«
    They shook hands, again examining each other.
    »I thought you didn't mean to know me.«
    »I hadn't once looked at you. But you have changed a good deal.«
    »Not more than you have, I'm sure.«
    »And what are you doing? You look much more cheerful than you used to.«
    »I can't say the same of you.«
    »Have you been in London all the time?«
    »Oh no. Two years ago I went back to Liverpool, and had a place there for
nearly six months. But I got tired of it. In a few days I'm going to Brighton;
I've got a place in a restaurant. Quite time, too; I've had nothing for seven
weeks.«
    »I've often thought about you,« said Elgar, after a pause.
    »But you never came to see how I was getting on.«
    »Oh, I supposed you were married long since.«
    She laughed, and shook her head.
    »You are, though, I suppose?« she asked.
    »Not I!«
    They talked with increasing friendliness until the rain stopped, then walked
away together in the direction of the City.
    About dinner-time, Cecily received a telegram. It was from her husband, and
informed her that he had left town with a friend for a day or two.
    This was the first instance of such a proceeding on Reuben's part. For a
moment, it astonished her. Which of his friends could it be? But when the
surprise had passed, she reflected more on his reasons for absenting himself,
and believed that she understood them. He wished to punish her; he thought she
would be anxious about him, and so come to adopt a different demeanour when he
returned. Ever so slight a suspicion of another kind occurred to her once or
twice, but she had no difficulty in dismissing it. No; this was merely one of
his tactics in the conflict that had begun between them.
    And his absence was a relief. She too wanted to think for a while,
undisturbed. When she had seen the child in bed and asleep, she moved about the
house with a strange sense of freedom, seeming to breathe more naturally than
for several days. She went to the piano, and played some
