ing, in the sooty shadows. With the necklace of
seed pearls in his pocket he walked over the street revolving
in his mind the problem of asking her to
accompany him. He could not hope to hide it
from Lettice; and, today, he had recognized a note
of finality in his wife's voice with regard to the
school-teacher. If he went with Meta Beggs serious
trouble would ensue in his home... he wished to
avoid any actual outbreak with Lettice. He remembered,
tardily, her condition; it would be dangerous
for her. He might, conceivably, at some time
or another, go away; even to Paris -- yet, at that
latter thought, the wish, almost the necessity, of a
return lingered at the back of his brain -- but he
would not goad her into an explosion of misery and
temper. He acknowledged to himself, with a faint
glow of pride, that he was not anxious to encounter
Lettice Makimmon's full displeasure; she possessed
the capability of tenacity, an iron-like resolve, inherited
from old Pompey.

In the outcome his difficulty was unexpectedly
solved for him -- a large farm wagon, with boards
temporarily laid from side to side, was to convey
a quantity of people, and among them Meta Beggs,
from the village to the sap-boiling. He learned this
from the idlers before the _Bugle_ office. Sitting with
his chair canted against that dingy wooden facade
he thought of the school-teacher and the coming

[[241]]

p240 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p241w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p242

v?