ortunate affair beforehand, and he thinks it only right that his
position and intentions should be made quite clear to you. It is an
affair of property and prospects; and if there were any objection you
had to make, if you would mention it to me--it is a subject which of
course he would rather not speak about himself--if you will be good
enough just to read this." With the last words Lush rose and presented
the paper to her.

When Gwendolen resolved that she would betray no feeling in the
presence of this man, she had not prepared herself to hear that her
husband knew the silent consciousness, the silently accepted terms on
which she had married him. She dared not raise her hand to take the
paper, least it should visibly tremble. For a moment Lush stood holding
it toward her, and she felt his gaze on her as ignominy, before she
could say even with low-toned haughtiness--

"Lay it on the table. And go into the next room, please."

Lush obeyed, thinking as he took an easy-chair in the back
drawing-room, "My lady winces considerably. She didn't know what would
be the charge for that superfine article, Henleigh Grandcourt." But it
seemed to him that a penniless girl had done better than she had any
right to expect, and that she had been uncommonly knowing for her years
and opportunities: her words to Lydia meant nothing, and her running
away had probably been part of her adroitness. It had turned out a
master-stroke.

Meanwhile Gwendolen was rallying her nerves to the reading of the
paper. She must read it. Her whole being--pride, longing for rebellion,
dreams of freedom, remorseful conscience, dread of fresh
visitation--all made one need to know what the paper contained. But at
first it was not easy to take in the meaning of the words. When she had
succeeded, she found that in the case of there being no son as issue of
her marriage, Grandcourt had made the small Henleigh his heir; that was
all she cared to extract from the paper with any distinctness. The
other statement as to what provision would be made for her in the same
case, she hurried over, getting only a confused perception of thousands
and Gadsmere. It was enough. She could dismiss the man in the next room
with the defiant energy which had revived in her at the idea that this
question of property and inheritance was meant as a finish to her
humiliations and her thraldom.

She thrust the paper between the leaves of her book, which she took in
her hand, and w