."

At the sound of that second voice Maurice started and looked at Lucia.
She had suddenly grasped at the stonework before her, and stood looking
with passionate eagerness over the carved figure of the dying Duke
towards the altar. He almost shuddered at the intensity of that
gaze--the rigidity of intolerable suspense in her whole figure; but he
could only be still and watch her.

The unconscious Englishwoman moved on; close behind her, following her
with his old languid manner, came the man Lucia was watching for--Edward
Percy.

Still she never stirred. They passed down the chapel with her eyes upon
them, but they never saw her, and she made no sound or movement. Only
when they were no longer in sight, everything seemed to grow suddenly
black and confused about her--her hold upon the marble relaxed, and she
would have fallen if Maurice had not gently supported her, and drawn her
to a seat close by.

She did not faint, though she was cold and white and powerless. After a
minute Maurice, bending over her, saw that she was trying to speak. Her
lips seemed stiff and hardly able to form the words, but he made out,

"Who is she?"

He hesitated a moment; but she saw that he _could_ answer, and her eyes
insisted on her question.

"She is his wife," he answered; "they were married, I believe, a month
or six weeks ago."

Suddenly, at his words, the blood seemed to rise with one quick rush to
her very temples.

"You knew," she said, "and would not tell me!"

Then after her momentary anger came shame, bitter and intolerable, for
her self-betrayal. She bent down her face on her hands, but her whole
figure shook with violent agitation. Maurice suffered scarcely less. His
love for her gave him a comprehension of all, and a sympathy unspeakable
with her pain. He laid his hand lightly on her shoulder as he had often
done in her childish troubles, but one word escaped him which he had
never spoken to her before,

"My darling! my darling!"

Perhaps she did not hear it; but at least she understood that through
all the pang of her loss, there remained with her one faithful and
perfect affection; and even at that moment she was unconsciously
comforted.

But the Percys were gone, and the guide was coming back into the chapel
after a word or two at the door with her husband; Maurice had to decide
instantly what to do. He said to Lucia,

"Wait here for me," and then going forward to meet the woman, he
contrived to make her