Gathered In by Catherine Helen Spence — Read

Jim Oswald was received without much reproach at home; his mother was overjoyed, Kenneth cordial, and George Oswald was really glad that he had come back without Ellerton, though it was all of a piece with his dislike to everything that was disagreeable that Jim had left the friend whom he appeared unable to live apart from, when that friend was in pain and in solitude. As there might be later telegrams at Wilta about the patient, Jim had a mission to go there to enquire as soon as possible. Kenneth had business in another direction, so for the first time in his life his cousin went to Mr. Gray's by himself.

And now when he was to see Mrs. Ellerton again without her husband and without Kenneth, how would she receive him after leaving his friend in this shabby way. "She ought to be glad to get rid of him a little longer," he said to himself. "He never deserved such a woman; he never behaved to her decently; he wanted to drive her on to the stage." But then, again, if Sybil knew what he had plotted with Carmichael, how he had paid for the accident to happen, and would pay more if it was followed by more serious consequences, she was sure to turn from him for ever. But she should never know.