oors.
"But I suppose you thought as it wasn't _me_----?" she had wound up; and
Sue, conscious that Sybil was watching also, owned that the triumphant
smile by which the words were accompanied, made her strangely
uncomfortable.

"And the next morning she pored over a new set of illustrated papers,"
continued she; "it is odd that I should remember it all so clearly, but
I do. What happened afterwards stamped it on my memory, no doubt. I
racked my brains to think if Paul could have offended her in any way,
and if a sudden angry impulse--you know poor Maud was apt to get angry,
and to be very implacable too--but they seemed quite as friendly as
usual. We had grown to think, Sybil and I, that Paul had not--not
perhaps found Maud _all_ that he expected, and that sometimes he looked
a little grave after they had been together. Sybil spoke to me about it,
but we kept it to ourselves, as we fancied you saw nothing."

"Well?" said Leo, slowly. "Well?" She was drinking in every word.

"The next evening--the evening you were in bed--stop, let me consider:
no, I don't think there was any palpable difference; nothing to attract
attention, of _that_ I am sure. Maud had great command over herself. She
told us as if it were an ordinary piece of news, that she had had a long
visit from Val--but whether she intended Paul to take any notice of
that, or not, I cannot tell. I cannot tell anything about that evening,
because my own thoughts were rather taken up with you, and I was up in
your room a good deal, you may remember?"

Yes, Leo remembered. Remembered also how she tried every means to get
rid of the kindly, patient intruder, who tortured her by her presence
and anxiety. "I never thought I should be able to tell you the truth,
Sue. And oh, I was so miserable, I was in hell----"

"Darling Leo, don't; don't say that. It is not quite right, you know."

"Yet we talk of being in heaven, why is the other place worse?"

Sue however could not tell why, and only shook her head gently.

"Well, then, I was, you know where," resumed Leo, with a nod; "and
what's more, I had been there for ages. I was wicked for quite a long
time before that, you know;" and she leaned her elbows on Sue's lap, and
looked up into her face. "It began soon after I came home. I did so hate
being a widow--oh, poor Godfrey! Sue, it had nothing to do with Godfrey;
it was the awful clothes, and the being shut up in dark corners----"

"Dark corners, Leo?"

"That w