He was pained and astonished;
and, doubtless, his manner was influenced by his feelings, although
he had no intention of allowing simple gossip to prejudice him against
so old a friend as Elizabeth Hallam. But she felt an alien atmosphere,
and it checked and chilled her. If she had had any disposition to make
a confidant of the rector, after that visit it was gone. "His sickness
and the influx of new lives and new elements into his life has changed
him," she thought; "I will not tell him any thing."
On the contrary, he expected her confidence. He called upon her several
times in this expectation; but each time there was more perceptible
an indefinable something which prevented it. In fact, he felt mortified
by Elizabeth's reticence. People had confidently expected that Miss
Hallam would explain her conduct to him; some had even said, they were
ready to resume friendly relations with her if the rector's attitude
in the matter appeared to warrant it. It will easily be seen, then,
that the return of her old friend, instead of dissipating the prejudice
against her, deepened it.
The third year was a very hard and gloomy one. It is true, she had
paid more than half of Page and Thorley's claim, and that the estate
was fully as prosperous as it had ever been in her father's time. But
socially she felt herself to be almost a pariah.
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