had given her, which she had treated with so much derision, for which
she had rebuked him so mildly and yet so haughtily, had now a somewhat
sacred spot in her memory. Through it all the man must have really
loved her! Was it not marvellous that such a thing should be? And how
had it come to pass that she in all her tenderness had rejected him
when he had given her the chance of becoming his wife?

CHAPTER XC - HETTA'S SORROW

When Hetta Carbury received that letter from her lover which was given
to the reader some chapters back, it certainly did not tend in any way
to alleviate her misery. Even when she had read it over half-a-dozen
times, she could not bring herself to think it possible that she could
be reconciled to the man. It was not only that he had sinned against
her by giving his society to another woman to whom he had at any rate
been engaged not long since, at the very time at which he was becoming
engaged to her,--but also that he had done this in such a manner as to
make his offence known to all her friends. Perhaps she had been too
quick;--but there was the fact that with her own consent she had acceded
to her mother's demand that the man should be rejected. The man had
been rejected, and even Roger Carbury knew that it was so. After this
it was, she thought, impossible that she should recall him. But they
should all know that her heart was unchanged. Roger Carbury should
certainly know that, if he ever asked her further question on the
matter. She would never deny it; and though she knew that the man had
behaved badly,--having entangled himself with a nasty American woman,--
yet she would be true to him as far as her own heart was concerned.

And now he told her that she had been most unjust to him. He said that
he could not understand her injustice. He did not fill his letter with
entreaties, but with reproaches. And certainly his reproaches moved her
more than any prayer would have done. It was too late now to remedy
the evil; but she was not quite sure within her own bosom that she had
not been unjust to him. The more she thought of it the more puzzled
her mind became. Had she quarrelled with him because he had once been
in love with Mrs Hurtle, or because she had grounds for regarding Mrs
Hurtle as her present rival? She hated Mrs Hurtle, and she was very
angry with him in that he had ever been on affectionate terms with a
woman she hated;--but that had not been the reason put forward by her