y Wentworth would she ever confess,
ever release Michael!

"There was no harm in their walking together," she said tremulously.

"There was one harm in it," retorted Bessie. "It made me so angry that I
did not know how to live. They did not see me, and I struck up into the
wood, and I had to stay an hour by myself holding on to a little tree,
before I could trust myself to come home."

"It does not help matters to be angry, Bessie. I was angry once for two
years. I said at the time like Jonah that I did well, but I see now that
I might have done better."

"I don't particularly care what helps matters and what does not. I now
come to my own disgraceful conduct. I have spied upon Fay steadily for
the last fortnight. She is so silly she never even thinks she is
watched. And she meets Wentworth in Pilgrim Road nearly every afternoon.
I once waylaid her as if by accident, on her way home, and asked her
where she had been, and she said she had been on her way to Arleigh
wood, but had not got so far, as she was too tired. Too tired! She had
been walking up and down with Wentworth for over an hour. I timed them.
She never meant to go to Arleigh wood. And when they said Good-bye,
he--he kissed her hand. Since Fay has come back to live here I have
gradually formed the meanest opinion of her. She is not truthful. She is
not sincere. She is absolutely selfish. I was inclined to be sorry for
her at first, but I soon saw through her. She did not really care for
Andrea. She only pretended. Everything she does is a kind of pretty
pretence. She does not really care for Wentworth. She is only leading
him on for her own amusement."

"I think it is much more likely that she is drifting towards marriage
with him without being fully aware of what she is doing. But women like
you and me are not in the same position towards men as Fay is.
Consequently it is very difficult for us to judge her fairly."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You and I are not attractive to men. Fay is. You saw Wentworth kiss her
hand. You naturally infer, but you are probably wrong, that Fay had been
leading him on, as you call it."

"It will take a good deal to disabuse me of that at any rate. I believe
my own eyes."

"I should not if I were you. If anyone kissed your hand or mine it would
not only be an epoch in our lives, but also the sign manual of some
ponderous attachment which you, my dear, would carefully weigh, and
approximately value. But do you su