r, for him, for her lover. But she could not. There was
around her thoughts the same breathless darkness that brooded over this
night. Ah! but to the night had been given that pale-gold moon-ray, to
herself nothing, no faintest gleam; as well try to pierce below the dark
surface of that water!

She passed her hands over her face, and hair, and dress. How long had
it lasted? How long had they been out here? And she began slowly moving
back towards the house. Thank God! She had not yielded to fear or pity,
not uttered falsities, not pretended she could love him, and betrayed
her heart. That would have been the one unbearable thing to have been
left remembering! She stood long looking down, as if trying to see the
future in her dim flower-beds; then, bracing herself, hurried to the
house. No one was on the veranda, no one in the drawing-room. She
looked at the clock. Nearly eleven. Ringing for the servant to shut the
windows, she stole up to her room. Had her husband gone away as he had
come? Or would she presently again be face to face with that dread, the
nerve of which never stopped aching now, dread of the night when he was
near? She determined not to go to bed, and drawing a long chair to the
window, wrapped herself in a gown, and lay back.

The flower from her dress, miraculously uncrushed in those dark
minutes on the grass, she set in water beside her at the window--Mark's
favourite flower, he had once told her; it was a comfort, with its
scent, and hue, and memory of him.

Strange that in her life, with all the faces seen, and people known, she
had not loved one till she had met Lennan! She had even been sure that
love would never come to her; had not wanted it--very much; had thought
to go on well enough, and pass out at the end, never having known, or
much cared to know, full summer. Love had taken its revenge on her now
for all slighted love offered her in the past; for the one hated love
that had to-night been on its knees to her. They said it must always
come once to every man and woman--this witchery, this dark sweet
feeling, springing up, who knew how or why? She had not believed, but
now she knew. And whatever might be coming, she would not have this
different. Since all things changed, she must change and get old and
be no longer pretty for him to look at, but this in her heart could not
change. She felt sure of that. It was as if something said: This is for
ever, beyond life, beyond death, this is for e