took it from the post She knew the hand-writing, and she guessed the contents referred to a reconciliation, "which isn't agreeable, nor what is expected or wished for," she commented. "Master is gone, or as good as gone, for all the year; and iverything arranged comfortable for servants at the hall, and misses can be done varry well without. It's not a Botany Bay affair to put t' letter in his room, where he can see it if he looks around for it, and it isn't imprisonment for life to forget to tell him about it." So, without a word, she took the unfortunate petition to a parlor Anthony seldom used, and put it behind a large china vase on the chimney-piece.
As Eleanor expected, Anthony made a final visit to the hall, but he never saw her note, and Mrs. Parsons never remembered to point it out to him. And to the anxious wife, the weary hours of watching and waiting went over as if there was lead in every minute of them. But in four days the suspense was over. She saw the departure of her husband and his uncle's family in the weekly paper, and she realized, as she had never done before, how truly forsaken she was. Love, anger and jealousy drove her to the very
