The Woodlanders

That was how it had begun, and tragedy had been its end. On his abrupt

departure she had followed him to the station but the train was gone;

and in travelling to Baden in search of him she had met his rival,

whose reproaches led to an altercation, and the death of both. Of that

precipitate scene of passion and crime Fitzpiers had known nothing till

he saw an account of it in the papers, where, fortunately for himself,

no mention was made of his prior acquaintance with the unhappy lady;

nor was there any allusion to him in the subsequent inquiry, the double

death being attributed to some gambling losses, though, in point of

fact, neither one of them had visited the tables.

Melbury and his daughter drew near their house, having seen but one

living thing on their way, a squirrel, which did not run up its tree,

but, dropping the sweet chestnut which it carried, cried

chut-chut-chut, and stamped with its hind legs on the ground. When the

roofs and chimneys of the homestead began to emerge from the screen of

boughs, Grace started, and checked herself in her abstracted advance.

"You clearly understand," she said to her step-mother some of her old

misgiving returning, "that I am coming back only on condition of his

leaving as he promised? Will you let him know this, that there may be

no mistake?"

Mrs. Melbury, who had some long private talks with Fitzpiers, assured

Grace that she need have no doubts on that point, and that he would

probably be gone by the evening. Grace then entered with them into

Melbury's wing of the house, and sat down listlessly in the parlor,

while her step-mother went to Fitzpiers.

The prompt obedience to her wishes which the surgeon showed did honor

to him, if anything could. Before Mrs. Melbury had returned to the

room Grace, who was sitting on the parlor window-bench, saw her husband

go from the door under the increasing light of morning, with a bag in

his hand. While passing through the gate he turned his head. The

firelight of the room she sat in threw her figure into dark relief

against the window as she looked through the panes, and he must have

seen her distinctly. In a moment he went on, the gate fell to, and he

disappeared. At the hut she had declared that another had displaced

him; and now she had banished him.