nd from her friend's husband!

If stricken idiotic, he was a gentleman; the tigress she had detected in
her composition did not require to be called forth; half-a-dozen words,
direct, sharp as fangs and teeth, with the eyes burning over them,
sufficed for the work of defence. 'The man who swore loyalty to Emma!'
Her reproachful repulsion of eyes was unmistakeable, withering; as
masterful as a superior force on his muscles.--What thing had he been
taking her for?--She asked it within: and he of himself, in a reflective
gasp. Those eyes of hers appeared as in a cloud, with the wrath above:
she had: the look of a Goddess in anger. He stammered, pleaded across
her flying shoulder--Oh! horrible, loathsome, pitiable to hear!... 'A
momentary aberration... her beauty... he deserved to be shot!... could
not help admiring... quite lost his head.. on his honour! never again!'

Once in the roadway, and Copsley visible, she checked her arrowy
pace for breath, and almost commiserated the dejected wretch in her
thankfulness to him for silence. Nothing exonerated him, but at least
he had the grace not to beg secresy. That would have been an intolerable
whine of a poltroon, adding to her humiliation. He abstained; he stood
at her mercy without appealing.

She was not the woman to take poor vengeance. But, Oh! she was
profoundly humiliated, shamed through and through. The question, was
I guilty of any lightness--anything to bring this on me? would not be
laid. And how she pitied her friend! This house, her heart's home, was
now a wreck to her: nay, worse, a hostile citadel. The burden of the
task of meeting Emma with an open face, crushed her like very guilt. Yet
she succeeded. After an hour in her bedchamber she managed to lock up
her heart and summon the sprite of acting to her tongue and features:
which ready attendant on the suffering female host performed his
liveliest throughout the evening, to Emma's amusement, and to the
culprit ex-dragoon's astonishment; in whom, to tell the truth of him,
her sparkle and fun kindled the sense of his being less criminal than he
had supposed, with a dim vision of himself as the real proven donkey
for not having been a harmless dash more so. But, to be just as well
as penetrating, this was only the effect of her personal charm on his
nature. So it spurred him a moment, when it struck this doleful man
that to have secured one kiss of those fresh and witty sparkling lips he
would endure forfeits, p