Out of her sphere - University Library

134 OUT OF HER SPHERE.
There was a little stir at this remark.
Audley Dale turned and looked eagerly at
the juryman who had put it. If after all
this should not be Mrs. Thornton !
If all
their suspicions, terror, and excitement had
been for nothing, andsome nameless wanderer
had appropriated the sympathy which should
have been given to the wife of the Rector
of St. Hilda ! Two
or three of the jury-
men observed that they had remarked the
boots—they were thick, and clumsily made,
not at all the boots that a lady would be
likely to wear. Audley Dale grew full of
hope. He remembered well how daintily
shod Mrs. Thornton's feet had always been.
He would have liked to ask permission to
view the corpse supposed to be hers ; and
then a sickening horror came over him. If
this should be she ! foul, ghastly, and de-
caying, the sight would be too horrible.
He had as much physical bravery as most
Englishmen of his age and class possess,