All further communication with him (if her
influence could prevent it) must come to an end.
Still as far as ever from feeling reconciled to the marriage, Mountjoy
read this letter with a feeling of resentment which disinclined him to
answer it.
He believed (quite erroneously) that Iris had written to him under the
superintendence of her husband. There were certain phrases which had
been, as he chose to suspect, dictated by Lord Harry's distrust--
jealous distrust, perhaps--of his wife's friend. Mountjoy would wait to
reply, until, as he bitterly expressed it, Iris was able to write to
him without the assistance of her master.
Again he thought of returning to Scotland--and, again, he hesitated.
On this occasion, he discovered objections to the cottage which had not
occurred to him while Iris was a single woman. The situation was
solitary; his nearest neighbours were fishermen. Here and there, at
some little distance, there were only a few scattered houses inhabited
by retired tradesmen. Further away yet, there was the country-seat of
an absent person of distinction, whose health suffered in the climate
of Scotland. The lonely life in prospect, on the shores of the Solway,
now daunted Mountjoy for the first time.
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