366 The Real Charlotte. 



take with him that afternoon. Hawkins had sent her a 

 note saying that he would come to pay a farewell visit, a 

 cautiously formal note that anyone might have seen, but 

 that she was just as glad had not been seen by her husband, 

 and at all hazards she must stay in to meet him. She got 

 up and went to the study with a nervous colour in her 

 cheeks, glancing out of the hall window as she passed it, 

 with the idea that the threatening grey of the sky would be 

 a good argument for staying at home. But if it rained, 

 Roddy might stay at home too, she thought, and that would 

 be worse than anything. That was her last thought as she 

 went into the study. 



Lambert was standing with his hands in his pockets> 

 looking down at the pile of papers and books on the table, 

 and Francie was instantly struck by something unwonted in 

 his attitude, something rigid and yet spent, that was very 

 different from his usual bearing. He looked at her with 

 heavy eyes, and going to his chair let himself drop into it \ 

 then, still silently, he held out his hand to her. She thought 

 he looked older, and that his face was puffy and unattrac- 

 tive, and in the highly-strung state of her nerves she felt a 

 repugnance to him that almost horrified her. It is an un- 

 fortunate trait of human nature that a call for sympathy 

 from a person with whom sympathy has been lost has a 

 repellent instead of an attractive power, and if a strong 

 emotion does not appear pathetic, it is terribly near the 

 ludicrous. In justice to Francie it must be said that her 

 dominant feeling as she gave Lambert her hand and was 

 drawn down on to his knee was less repulsion than a sense 

 of her own hypocrisy. 



" What's the matter, Roddy?" she asked, after a second or 

 two of silence, during which she felt the labouring of his breath. 



" I'm done for," he said, "that's what's the matter." 



" Why ! what do you mean ? " she exclaimed, turning her 

 startled face half towards him, and trying not to shrink as 

 his hot breath struck on her cheek. 



** I've lost the agency." 



" Lost the agency ! " repeated Francie, feeling as though 

 the world with all the things she believed to be most solid 

 were rocking under her feet, " Do you mean he's after 

 dismissing you ? " 



