all
events. I'm a blundering donkey. Yes, she wishes to keep her liberty.
And, upon my soul, I'm in love with everything she wishes! I've got the
habit.'

'Habit be hanged!' cried Sir Lukin. 'You're in love with the woman. I
know a little more of you now, Mr. Tom. You're a fellow in earnest about
what you do. You're feeling it now, on the rack, by heaven! though you
keep a bold face. Did she speak positively?--sort of feminine of "you're
the monster, not the man"? or measured little doctor's dose of
pity?--worse sign.' You 're not going?'

'If you'll drive me down in half an hour,' said Redworth.

'Give me an hour,' Sir Lukin replied, and went straight to his wife's
blue-room.

Diana was roused from a meditation on a letter she held, by the entrance
of Emma in her bed-chamber, to whom she said: 'I have here the very
craziest bit of writing!--but what is disturbing you, dear?'

Emma sat beside her, panting and composing her lips to speak. 'Do you,
love me? I throw policy to the winds, if only, I can batter at you for
your heart and find it! Tony, do you love me? But don't answer: give me
your hand. You have rejected him!'

'He has told you?'

'No. He is not the man to cry out for a wound. He heard in London--Lukin
has had the courage to tell me, after his fashion:--Tom Redworth heard an
old story, coming from one of the baser kind of women: grossly false, he
knew. I mention only Lord Wroxeter and Lockton. He went to man and woman
both, and had it refuted, and stopped their tongues, on peril; as he of
all men is able to do when he wills it.'

Observing the quick change in Tony's eyes, Emma exclaimed: 'How you
looked disdain when you asked whether he had told me! But why are you the
handsome tigress to him, of all men living! The dear fellow, dear to me
at least! since the day he first saw you, has worshipped you and striven
to serve you:--and harder than any Scriptural service to have the beloved
woman to wife. I know nothing to compare with it, for he is a man of
warmth. He is one of those rare men of honour who can command their
passion; who venerate when they love: and those are the men that women
select for punishment! Yes, you! It is to the woman he loves that he
cannot show himself as he is, because he is at her feet. You have managed
to stamp your spirit on him; and as a consequence, he defends you now,
for flinging him off. And now his chief regret is, that he has caused his
name to be coupled with your