Shadrach, however, did not call. He sent her a note expressing in aimple language the atate of his feelings; and asked to be allowed to take advantage of the hints she had given him that her affection, too, was little more than friendly, by cancelling the engagement.
Looking out upon the harbor and the island beyond, he waited and waited in his lodgings for an answer that did not come. The suspense grew to be so intolerable that after dark he went up the high street. He could not resist ealling at Joanna’s to learn his fate.
Her mother said her daughter was too unwell to sea him, and to hie questioning admitted that it was in consequence of a letter received from himself, which had distressed her deeply.
“You know what it was about, perhaps, Mrs. Phippard ?” he said.
Mrs. Phippard owned that she did, adding that it put them in a very painful position. Thereupon Shadrach, fearing that he had been guilty of an enormity, explained that if his letter had pained Joanna it must be owing to 4 misunderstanding, since he had thought it would be a relief to her. If otherwise, he would hold himself bound by his word, and she was to think of the letter as never having been written.
Next morving he received an oral message from the young woman, asking him to fetch her home from a meeting that evening. This he did, and while walking from the Town-hall to her door, with her hand in his arm, she said;
‘It is all the same as before between us, isn’t it, Shadrach? ‘Your letter was sent in mistake ?”
‘It is all the same as before,” he answered, “if you say it must be.”
“I wish it to be,” she murmured, with hard lineaments, as she thought of Emily.
