tried to make me see what my duty was, and
my honour.'

'He was at every man Jack of us.'

'I speak of one thing. I thought I might not have to go. Now I feel I
must. I remember him at Steynham, when Colonel Halkett and Cecilia were
there. But for me, Cecilia would now be his wife. Of that there is
no doubt; that is not the point; regrets are fruitless. I see how the
struggle it cost him to break with his old love--that endearing Madame
de Rouaillout, his Renee--broke his heart; and then his loss of Cecilia
Halkett. But I do believe, true as that I am lying here, and you hold
my hand, my dear husband, those losses were not so fatal to him as his
sufferings he went through on account of his friend Dr. Shrapnel. I will
not keep you here.

Go and have some rest. What I shall beg of you tomorrow will not injure
my health in the slightest: the reverse: it will raise me from a bitter
depression. It shall not be said that those who loved him were unmoved
by him. Before he comes back to life, or is carried to his grave, he
shall know that I was not false to my love of him.'

'My dear, your pulse is at ninety,' said the earl.

'Look lenient, be kind, be just, my husband. Oh! let us cleanse our
hearts. This great wrong was my doing. I am not only quite strong enough
to travel to Bevisham, I shall be happy in going: and when I have done
it--said: "The wrong was all mine," I shall rejoice like the pure in
spirit. Forgiveness does not matter, though I now believe that poor
loving old man who waits outside his door weeping, is wrong-headed only
in his political views. We women can read men by their power to love.
Where love exists there is goodness. But it is not for the sake of the
poor old man himself that I would go: it is for Nevil's; it is for ours,
chiefly for me, for my child's, if ever...!' Rosamund turned her head on
her pillow.

The earl patted her cheek. 'We 'll talk it over in the morning,' he
said. 'Now go to sleep.'

He could not say more, for he did not dare to attempt cajolery with
her. Shading his lamp he stepped softly away to wrestle with a worse
nightmare than sleep's. Her meaning was clear: and she was a woman
to insist on doing it. She was nevertheless a woman not impervious to
reason, if only he could shape her understanding to perceive that the
state of her nerves, incident to her delicate situation and the shock
of that fellow Nevil's illness--poor lad!--was acting on her mind,
rendering her a victi