"Then you can fancy the difference between it and Milton. What part were you in? Were you ever at Helstone? a little picturesque village, like some in the Odenwald? You know Helstone?"
"I have seen it. It was a great change to leave it and come to Milton."
He took up his newspaper with a determined air, as if resolved to avoid further conversation; and Mr. Bell was fain to resort to his former occupation of trying to find out how he could best break the news to Margaret.
She was at an upstairs window; she saw him alight; she guessed the truth with an instinctive flash. She stood in the middle of the drawing-room, as if arrested in her first impulse to rush downstairs, and as if by the same restraining thought she had been turned to stone; so white and immovable was she.

'Then you can fancy the difference between it and Milton. Were you ever at Helstone? - a little picturesque village?'
'I have seen it. It was a great change for them to leave it and come to Milton.'
He took up his newspaper with a determined air, as if to avoid further conversation; and Mr. Bell went back to wondering how to break the news to Margaret.
She was at an upstairs window; she saw him arrive, and guessed the truth with an instinctive flash. She stood in the middle of the drawing-room as if turned to stone, so white and still was she.
