Her marriage loomed ahead in the near future, and in spite of her dogged intention to fulfil her bargain, she dreaded unspeakably the actual day which would make her Roger’s wife—­compelling her to a physical and spiritual bondage from which she shrank with loathing.

But there could be no escape.  None.  Throughout her illness, and since then, while she had groped her way slowly back to health here at Mallow, Roger had been thoughtful and considerate to an astonishing degree.  Never once, during all the hours they had passed together, had he let that strong passion of his break loose, though once or twice she thought she had heard it leap against the bars which prisoned it—­the hot, imperious desire to which one day she must submit unmurmuringly.

Drilled by Kitty, he had been very undemanding up till now.  Often he had left her with only a kindly pressure of the hand or a light kiss on her forehead, and she had been grateful to him.  Grateful, too, that she had been spared a disagreeable scene with his mother.  Lady Gertrude had met her without censure, even with a certain limited cordiality, and accordingly Nan, whose conscience was over-sensitive just now, had reproached herself the more severely for her treatment of her future mother-in-law.

Perhaps she would have felt rather less self-reproachful if she had known the long hours of persuasion and argument by which Roger had at last prevailed upon his mother to refrain from pouring out the vials of her wrath on Nan’s devoted head.  Only fear lest she might alienate the girl so completely that Roger would lose the wife he wanted had induced her to yield.  She had consented at last, but with a mental reservation that when Nan was actually Roger’s wife she would tell her precisely what she thought of her whenever occasion offered.  Nothing would persuade her to overlook such flagrant faults in any daughter-in-law of hers!

Latterly, however, she had been considerably mollified by the Seymours’ tactful agreement to her cherished scheme that Nan’s marriage should take place from Mallow Court.  Actually, Kitty had consented because she considered that the longer Nan could lead an untrammelled life at Mallow, prior to her marriage, the better, and thanks to her skilful management the date was now fixed for the latter end of July.

Roger had chafed at the delay, but Kitty had been extremely firm on the point, assuring him that she required as long as possible to recuperate from her recent illness.  In her own mind she felt that, since Nan must inevitably go through with the marriage, every day’s grace she could procure for her would help to restore her poise and strengthen nerves which had already been tried to the uttermost.

Between them, Barry and Kitty and the two Fentons—­who had joined the Mallow party for a short holiday—­did their utmost to make the time that must still elapse before the wedding a little space of restfulness and peace, shielding Nan from every possible worry and annoyance.  Even the question of trousseau was swept aside by Kitty of the high hand.