the scandal?'

'All. I have long known that you were the mate for me. You have to
weather a gale, Tony. It won't last. My dearest! it won't last many
months. I regret the trial for you, but I shall be with you, burning for
the day to reinstate you and show you the queen you are.'

'Yes, we two can have no covert dealings, Percy,' said Diana. They would
be hateful--baseness! Rejecting any baseness, it seemed to her that she
stood in some brightness. The light was of a lurid sort. She called
on her heart to glory in it as the light of tried love, the love that
defied the world. Her heart rose. She and he would at a single step
give proof of their love for one another--and this kingdom of love--how
different from her recent craven languors!--this kingdom awaited her,
was hers for one word; and beset with the oceans of enemies, it was
unassailable. If only they were true to the love they vowed, no human
force could subvert it: and she doubted him as little as of herself.
This new kingdom of love, never entered by her, acclaiming her, was
well-nigh unimaginable, in spite of the many hooded messengers it had
despatched to her of late. She could hardly believe that it had come.

'But see me as I am,' she said; she faltered it through her direct gaze
on him.

'With chains to strike off? Certainly; it is done,' he replied.

'Rather heavier than those of the slave-market! I am the deadest of
burdens. It means that your enemies, personal--if you have any, and
political--you have numbers; will raise a cry.... Realize it. You may
still be my friend. I forgive the bit of wildness.'

She provoked a renewed kissing of her hand; for magnammity in love is
an overflowing danger; and when he said: 'The burden you have to bear
outweighs mine out of all comparison. What is it to a man--a public man
or not! The woman is always the victim. That's why I have held myself in
so long:--her strung frame softened. She half yielded to the tug on her
arm.

'Is there no talking for us without foolishness?' she murmured. The
foolishness had wafted her to sea, far from sight of land. 'Now sit,
and speak soberly. Discuss the matter.--Yes, my hand, but I must have my
wits. Leave me free to use them till we choose our path. Let it be
the brains between us, as far as it can. You ask me to join my fate to
yours. It signifies a sharp battle for you, dear friend; perhaps the
blighting of the most promising life in England. One question is, can I
counte