4. NINE TO ELEVEN P.M.Manston mounted his gig and set out from Chettlewood that
evening in no very enviable frame of mind. The thought of domestic
life in Knapwater Old House, with the now eclipsed wife of the
past, was more than disagreeable, was positively distasteful to
him.
Yet he knew that the influential position, which, from whatever
fortunate cause, he held on Miss Aldclyffe's manor, would never
again fall to his lot on any other, and he tacitly assented to this
dilemma, hoping that some consolation or other would soon suggest
itself to him; married as he was, he was near Cytherea.
He occasionally looked at his watch as he drove along the lanes,
timing the pace of his horse by the hour, that he might reach
Carriford Road Station just soon enough to meet the last London
