CHAPTER XXXII SIMON’S ADVICE

It was with a heavy heart, the following morning, that Shirley set out on her customary daily walk from Corner Cottage to The Friary. Bob, to whom Simon had vouchsafed the information on his return from Old Wyck Farm, had told her that Neil was leaving Beriscombe to-day—and stumbled unhappily over the telling of it. And the realization that he was actually going—going completely out of her ken this time, once and for ever—had put the finishing touch to her desolation of spirit. It seemed so queer, so _unbelievable_…