She did not intend to avoid him altogether, only to take heed
not to startle him into any recognition of her in the presence of his
mother. But when she saw him approaching the house, her courage failed
her, and she fled to avoid the danger of betraying both, herself and him.
She was in truth ashamed of meeting him, in her imagination feeling
guiltily exposed to his just reproaches. All the time he remained that
evening with his mother, she kept watching the house, not once showing
herself until he was gone, when she reappeared as if just returned from
the moor, where Mrs. Blatherwick imagined her still indulging the hope of
finding her baby, concerning whom her mistress more than doubted the very
existence, taking the supposed fancy for nothing but a half-crazy survival
from the time of her insanity before the Robertsons found her.
The minister made a comforting peace with his mother, telling her a part of
the truth, namely, that he had been much out of sorts during the week, and
quite unable to write a new sermon; and that so he had been driven at the
very last to take an old one, and that so hurriedly that he had failed to
recall correctly the subject and nature of it; that he had actually begun
to read it before finding that it was altogether unsuitable--at which very
moment, fatally for his equanimity, he discovered his parents in the
congregation, and was so dismayed that he could not recover his self-
possession, whence had ensued his apparent lack of cordiality! It was a
lame, yet somewhat plausible excuse, and served to silence for the moment,
although it was necessarily so far from satisfying his mother's heart.
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