s he could
see her, which was a tempting of providence on the part of a man who was
not a great rider, and with a big horse like the black, and so fresh,
and irritated to be taken out of the stable at that hour of the night.
The servants exchanged looks as my lady walked back with eyes that shone
as they had never shone before, and something of that glory about her,
that dazzling and mist of self-absorption which belongs to no other
condition of the mind. She went back into the room and shut the door,
and sat down where she had been sitting, and delivered herself over to
those visions which are more enthralling than the reality; those mingled
recollections and anticipations which are the elixir of love. She had
forgotten all about herself; herself as she was before that last meeting.
Her age, her gravity, the falseness of the position, the terrible Geoff,
all floated away from her thoughts. They were filled only with what _he_
had been saying and doing, as if she had been that "fresh girl" of whom
she had spoken to him. She forgot that she was not that girl. She forgot
that she was four years (magnified this morning into a hundred) and a
whole life in advance of Theo. She thought only--nay, poor lady, assailed
after her time by this love-fever, taking it late and not lightly! she
thought not at all, but surrendered herself to that overwhelming wave of
emotion which, more than almost anything else, has the power of filling
up all the vacant places of life. Her troublous thoughts, her shame,
her sense of all the difficulties in her way, went from her in that new
existence. They were all there unchanged, but for the moment she thought
of them no more.

It was some time after this, when she went upstairs with her candle
through the stilled and darkened house, the light in her hand showing
still that confused sweet shining in her eyes, the smile that lurked
about the corners of her mouth. A faint sound made her look up as she
went towards the gallery upon which all the bedrooms opened. Standing by
the banister, looking down into the dark hall, was Geoff, a little white
figure, his colourless hair ruffled by much tossing on his bed, his eyes
dazzled by the light. "Geoff!" She stood still and her heart seemed to
stop beating. To see him there was as if a curtain had suddenly fallen,
shutting out all the sweet prospects before her, showing nothing but
darkness and danger instead.

"Geoff! Is it you out of bed at this hour?"