13Caroline awoke with a start and remembered that she had not told Vane about Harriet. She must warn him, she thought, that Harriet had no idea of Mr. Stratton’s real circumstances so that, if the Vicar questioned Vane about his friend, he should not say what an extremely advantageous marriage it was.
Caroline was convinced that it was essential at least until Harriet and Thomas Stratton were firmly established in their relationship to each other that the Vicar should continue to breathe the fire and smoke of vengeance.
“I must warn Vane,” Caroline said to herself and then remembered how she had left him the night before. Instantly she was angry with herself, for above all things Caroline despised weakness and she had indeed been weak when she had let Vane frighten and bully her into an
