Dr. Hinksey’s answer did not arrive till twelve days after the posting of Adam’s letter, and when it did arrive it was found to contain no invitation. Adam was obliged, therefore, to continue the correspondence to the point at which an invitation became unavoidable on Hinksey’s part. He liked old Hinksey none the better for putting him to this trouble, but was prepared to take him back into favour if the visit should yield the desired result. It occurred to him, as a passing thought, that Mary might possibly be away for that particular week-end ; but he refused to consider the possibility seriously. Her image was by now extremely dim in his memory ; he could not, in fact, have undertaken to recognize her had she appeared in an unlikely setting ; but he remembered the effect on her, and he had just enough curiosity left to make him persist in an enterprise which might yet, as he felt in moments of irritation, prove to have been more trouble than it was worth. Dr. Hinksey’s invitation, arriving on a Saturday morning, had not been in Adam’s possession for many hours when he received an unexpected visit from a young woman whom he had no present desire to sec, though he had not yet made up his mind to be rid of her altogether.
