" he said.

The words roused her from her sleep at once, and dissipated her
dream. The facts all rushed upon her in an instant; the letter in her
pocket; the request which she had made to Alice, that Alice might be
induced to guard her from this danger; the words which her husband
had spoken to her in the morning, and her anger against him in that
he had subjected her to the eyes of a Mrs Marsham; her own unsettled
mind--quite unsettled whether it would be best for her to go or to
stay! It all came upon her now at the first word of tenderness which
Burgo spoke to her.

It has often been said of woman that she who doubts is lost,--so
often that they who say it now, say it simply because others have
said it before them, never thinking whether or no there be any truth
in the proverb. But they who have said so, thinking of their words as
they were uttered, have known but little of women. Women doubt every
day, who solve their doubts at last on the right side, driven to
do so, some by fear, more by conscience, but most of them by that
half-prudential, half-unconscious knowledge of what is fitting,
useful, and best under the cirumstances, which rarely deserts
either men or women till they have brought themselves to the Burgo
Fitzgerald state of recklessness. Men when they have fallen even to
that, will still keep up some outward show towards the world; but
women in this condition defy the world, and declare themselves to be
children of perdition. Lady Glencora was doubting sorely; but, though
doubting, she was not as yet lost.

"Does it put you in mind of old days?" said Burgo.

She was driven to answer, and she knew that much would be decided by
the way in which she might now speak. "You must not talk of that,"
she said, very softly.

"May I not?" And now his tongue was unloosed, so that he began to
speak quickly. "May I not? And why not? They were happy days,--so
happy! Were not you happy when you thought--? Ah, dear! I suppose it
is best not even to think of them?"

"Much the best."

"Only it is impossible. I wish I knew the inside of your heart, Cora,
so that I could see what it is that you really wish."

In the old days he had always called her Cora, and now the name
came from his lips upon her ears as a thing of custom, causing no
surprise. They were standing back, behind the circle, almost in a
corner, and Burgo knew well how to speak at such moments so that his
words should be audible to none but her whom h