re, and
she tried to shut her eyes when the little pieces fell off, to
remind herself that she must make allowances for the severity of his
disappointment. Spring was here, the spring to which he had so eagerly
looked forward, and yet the listlessness with which he went about his
work was apparent. Sometimes he did not appear at breakfast, although
Honora clung with desperation to the hour they had originally fixed:
sometimes Mr. Manning waited for him until nearly ten o'clock, only to
receive curt dismissal. He went off for long rides, alone, and to the
despair of the groom brought back the horses in a lather, with drooping
heads and heaving sides; one of them he ruined. He declared there wasn't
a horse in the stable fit to give him exercise.

Often he sat for hours in his study, brooding, inaccessible. She had
the tennis-court rolled and marked, but the contests here were
pitifully-unequal; for the row of silver cups on his mantel, engraved
with many dates, bore witness to his athletic prowess. She wrote for
a book on solitaire, but after a while the sight of cards became
distasteful. With a secret diligence she read the reviews, and sent for
novels and memoirs which she scanned eagerly before they were begun with
him. Once, when she went into his study on an errand, she stood for a
minute gazing painfully at the cleared space on his desk where once
had lain the papers and letters relative to the life of General Angus
Chiltern.

There were intervals in which her hope flared, in which she tasted,
fearfully and with bated breath, something that she had not thought to
know again. It was characteristic of him that his penitence was never
spoken: nor did he exhibit penitence. He seemed rather at such times
merely to become normally himself, as one who changes personality,
apparently oblivious to the moods and deeds of yesterday. And these
occasions added perplexity to her troubles. She could not reproach
him--which perhaps in any event she would have been too wise to do;
but she could not, try as she would, bring herself to the point of a
discussion of their situation. The risk, she felt, was too great; now,
at least. There were instances that made her hope that the hour might
come.

One fragrant morning Honora came down to find him awaiting her, and
to perceive lying on her napkin certain distilled drops of the spring
sunshine. In language less poetic, diamonds to be worn in the ears. The
wheel of fashion, it appeared