represented in the way of the unedifying. He might be at some
sporting club or he might be anywhere else; at any rate he was not where
he ought to be at three o'clock in the morning. Such the husband such
the wife, she said to herself; and she felt that Selina would have a
kind of advantage, which she grudged her, if she should come in and say:
'And where is _he_, please--where is he, the exalted being on whose
behalf you have undertaken to preach so much better than he himself
practises?'

But still Selina failed to come in--even to take that advantage; yet in
proportion as her waiting was useless did the girl find it impossible to
go to bed. A new fear had seized her, the fear that she would never come
back at all--that they were already in the presence of the dreaded
catastrophe. This made her so nervous that she paced about the lower
rooms, listening to every sound, roaming till she was tired. She knew it
was absurd, the image of Selina taking flight in a ball-dress; but she
said to herself that she might very well have sent other clothes away,
in advance, somewhere (Laura had her own ripe views about the maid); and
at any rate, for herself, that was the fate she had to expect, if not
that night then some other one soon, and it was all the same: to sit
counting the hours till a hope was given up and a hideous certainty
remained. She had fallen into such a state of apprehension that when at
last she heard a carriage stop at the door she was almost happy, in
spite of her prevision of how disgusted her sister would be to find her.
They met in the hall--Laura went out as she heard the opening of the
door, Selina stopped short, seeing her, but said nothing--on account
apparently of the presence of the sleepy footman. Then she moved
straight to the stairs, where she paused again, asking the footman if
Mr. Berrington had come in.

'Not yet, ma'am,' the footman answered.

'Ah!' said Mrs. Berrington, dramatically, and ascended the stairs.

'I have sat up on purpose--I want particularly to speak to you,' Laura
remarked, following her.

'Ah!' Selina repeated, more superior still. She went fast, almost as if
she wished to get to her room before her sister could overtake her. But
the girl was close behind her, she passed into the room with her. Laura
closed the door; then she told her that she had found it impossible to
go to bed without asking her what she intended to do.

'Your behaviour is too monstrous!' Selina flashe