Of course, the bargain had to be sealed at the public-
house; and the companions he met with there soon became friends
enough to tempt him into Langdale, where again he met with Eleanor
Hebthwaite.
How did Susan pass the time? For the first day or so, she was too
angry and offended to cry. She went about her household duties in a
quick, sharp, jerking, yet absent way; shrinking one moment from
Will, overwhelming him with remorseful caresses the next. The third
day of Michael's absence, she had the relief of a good fit of crying;
and after that, she grew softer and more tender; she felt how harshly
she had spoken to him, and remembered how angry she had been. She
made excuses for him. "It was no wonder," she said to herself, "that
he had been vexed with her; and no wonder he would not give in, when
she had never tried to speak gently or to reason with him. She was
to blame, and she would tell him so, and tell him once again all that
her mother had bade her to be to Willie, and all the horrible stories
she had heard about madhouses, and he would be on her side at once."
And so she watched for his coming, intending to apologise as soon as
ever she saw him. She hurried over her household work, in order to
sit quietly at her sewing, and hear the first distant sound of his
well-known step or whistle.
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