may be stopped--that was
the meaning I had! I 'll try. It 's cutting my hand off, tearing my heart
out; but I will. O that you were free! You left your husband at
Tourdestelle?'

'I presume he is there at present: he was in Paris when I left.'

Beauchamp spoke hoarsely and incoherently in contrast with her composure:
'You will misunderstand me for a day or two, Renee. I say if you were
free I should have my first love mine for ever. Don't fear me: I have no
right even to press your fingers. He may throw you into my arms. Now you
are the same as if you were in your own home: and you must accept me for
your guide. By all I hope for in life, I'll see you through it, and keep
the dogs from barking, if I can. Thousands are ready to give tongue. And
if they can get me in the character of a law-breaker!--I hear them.'

'Are you imagining, Nevil, that there is a possibility of my returning to
him?'

'To your place in the world! You have not had to endure tyranny?'

'I should have had a certain respect for a tyrant, Nevil. At least I
should have had an occupation in mocking him and conspiring against him.
Tyranny! There would have been some amusement to me in that.'

'It was neglect.'

'If I could still charge it on neglect, Nevil! Neglect is very endurable.
He rewards me for nursing him . . . he rewards me with a little
persecution: wives should be flattered by it: it comes late.'

'What?' cried Beauchamp, oppressed and impatient.

Renee sank her voice.

Something in the run of the unaccented French: 'Son amour, mon ami':
drove the significance of the bitterness of the life she had left behind
her burningly through him. This was to have fled from a dragon! was the
lover's thought: he perceived the motive of her flight: and it was a
vindication of it that appealed to him irresistibly. The proposal for her
return grew hideous: and this ever multiplying horror and sting of the
love of a married woman came on him with a fresh throbbing shock, more
venom.

He felt for himself now, and now he was full of feeling for her.
Impossible that she should return! Tourdestelle shone to him like a
gaping chasm of fire. And becoming entirely selfish he impressed his
total abnegation of self upon Renee so that she could have worshipped
him. A lover that was like a starry frost, froze her veins, bewildered
her intelligence. She yearned for meridian warmth, for repose in a
directing hand; and let it be hard as one that grasps a sword: