Fired by these opinions Nelly went to her meeting with Richard and the first words uttered by Mr. Gurd sent a ray of warmth to her heart, for it seemed he also had reviewed the situation in a manner worthy of his high intelligence.

But he approached the subject uneasily and Mrs. Northover was too much a woman to rescue him at once.  She had been through a good deal and felt it fair that the master of ‘The Tiger’ should also suffer.

“It’s borne in upon me,” he said, after some generalities and vague hopes that Nelly was well, “that, perhaps, there’s no smoke without fire, as the saying is.”

“Meaning what?” asked she.

“Meaning, that though we flared up a bit and forgot what we owe to ourselves, there must have been a reason for so much feeling.”

“There certainly was.”

“We needn’t go back over the details; but you may be sure there must have lurked more behind our row than just a difference of opinion.  People don’t get properly hot with each other unless there’s a reason, Nelly, and I’m beginning to fear that the reason lies deeper than we thought.”

He waited for her to speak; but she did not.

“You mustn’t think me shifty, or anything of that kind; but I do feel, where there was such a lot of smoke and us separated all these weeks, and none the worse for separation apparently, that, if we was to take the step—­in a word, it’s come over me stronger and stronger that we might do well to weigh what we’re going to do in the balance before we do it.”

Her delight knew no bounds.  But still she did not reply, and Mr. Gurd began to grow red.

“If, by your silence, you mean that I’m cutting a poor figure before you, and you think I want to be off our bargain, you’re wrong,” he said.  “Your mind ought to move quicker and I don’t mind telling you so.  I’m not off my bargain, because I’m a man of honour, and my word, given to man, woman or child, is kept.  And if you don’t know that, you’re the only party in Bridport that don’t.  But I say again, there’s two sides to it, and look before you leap, though not a maxim women are very addicted to following, is a good rule for all that.  So I’ll ask you how the land lies, if you please.  You’ve turned this over same as me; and I’ll be obliged if you’ll tell me how you’re viewing it.”

“In other words you’ve changed your mind?”

“My mind can wait.  I may have done so, or I may not; but to change my mind ain’t to change my word, so you need have no anxiety on that account.”

“Far from being anxious,” answered Mrs. Northover, “I never felt so light-hearted since I was a girl, Richard.  For why?  My name for honest dealing is as high as yours, I believe, and if you’d come back to me and asked for bygones to be bygones, I should have struggled with it, same as you meant to do.  But, seeing you’re shaken, I’m pleased to tell, that I’m shaken also.  In fact, ‘shaken’ isn’t a strong enough word.  I’m thankful to Heaven you don’t want to go on with it, because, more don’t I.”