'No; I never wish to see them again! I cannot help feeling that your
putting them on was ominous.' 'Nothing is ominous in serene philosophy,' he said, kissing her.
'Things are either causes, or they are not causes. When can you see me again?' In such wise the hour passed away. The evening was typical of others
which followed it at irregular intervals through the winter. And during
the intenser months of the season frequent falls of snow lengthened, even
more than other difficulties had done, the periods of isolation between
the pair. Swithin adhered with all the more strictness to the letter of
his promise not to intrude into the house, from his sense of her
powerlessness to compel him to keep out should he choose to rebel. A
student of the greatest forces in nature, he had, like many others of his
sort, no personal force to speak of in a social point of view, mainly
because he took no interest in human ranks and formulas; and hence he was
as docile as a child in her hands wherever matters of that kind were
concerned.
Her brother wintered at Welland; but whether because his experience of
tropic climes had unfitted him for the brumal rigours of Britain, or for
some other reason, he seldom showed himself out of doors, and Swithin
caught but passing glimpses of him. Now and then Viviette's impulsive
affection would overcome her sense of risk, and she would press Swithin
to call on her at all costs. This he would by no means do. It was
obvious to his more logical mind that the secrecy to which they had bound
themselves must be kept in its fulness, or might as well be abandoned
altogether.
He was now sadly exercised on the subject of his uncle's will. There had
as yet been no pressing reasons for a full and candid reply to the
solicitor who had communicated with him, owing to the fact that the
payments were not to begin till Swithin was one-and-twenty; but time was
going on, and something definite would have to be done soon. To own to
his marriage and consequent disqualification for the bequest was easy in
itself; but it involved telling at least one man what both Viviette and
himself had great reluctance in telling anybody. Moreover he wished
Viviette to know nothing of his loss in making her his wife. All he
could think of doing for the present was to write a postponing letter to
his uncle's lawyer, and wait events.
The one comfort of this dreary winter-time was his perception of a
returning ability to work with the regularity and much of the spirit of
earlier days.