m that she suspected to whom he was
going--the temptation to make a clean breast, speaking without
restraint.

"Yes it is," said Grandcourt, enfolding her hand. "I will put off
going. And I will travel at night, so as only to be away one day." He
thought that he knew the reason of what he inwardly called this bit of
temper, and she was particularly fascinating to him at this moment.

"Then don't put off going, but travel at night," said Gwendolen,
feeling that she could command him, and finding in this peremptoriness
a small outlet for her irritation.

"Then you will go to Diplow to-morrow?"

"Oh, yes, if you wish it," said Gwendolen, in a high tone of careless
assent. Her concentration in other feelings had really hindered her
from taking notice that her hand was being held.

"How you treat us poor devils of men!" said Grandcourt, lowering his
tone. "We are always getting the worst of it."

"_Are_ you?" said Gwendolen, in a tone of inquiry, looking at him more
naively than usual. She longed to believe this commonplace _badinage_
as the serious truth about her lover: in that case, she too was
justified. If she knew everything, Mrs. Glasher would appear more
blamable than Grandcourt. "_Are_ you always getting the worst?"

"Yes. Are you as kind to me as I am to you?" said Grandcourt, looking
into her eyes with his narrow gaze.

Gwendolen felt herself stricken. She was conscious of having received
so much, that her sense of command was checked, and sank away in the
perception that, look around her as she might, she could not turn back:
it was as if she had consented to mount a chariot where another held
the reins; and it was not in her nature to leap out in the eyes of the
world. She had not consented in ignorance, and all she could say now
would be a confession that she had not been ignorant. Her right to
explanation was gone. All she had to do now was to adjust herself, so
that the spikes of that unwilling penance which conscience imposed
should not gall her. With a sort of mental shiver, she resolutely
changed her mental attitude. There had been a little pause, during
which she had not turned away her eyes; and with a sudden break into a
smile, she said--

"If I were as kind to you as you are to me, that would spoil your
generosity: it would no longer be as great as it could be--and it is
that now."

"Then I am not to ask for one kiss," said Grandcourt, contented to pay
a large price for this new kind of lo