s duly published in
the local paper. He had lain in prison only forty-eight hours, but
_he had lain in prison_, and the disgrace was indelible. No wonder he
had been ashamed to hold up his head, had hesitated so long to accept
Lady Hunsdon's invitation. The wonder was it had been extended. Anne
shrewdly inferred it never would have been in London, no matter what
the entreaties of Lord Hunsdon, but on this island many laws were
relaxed and many a sin left behind.

Then her thoughts swung to his indubious assertion that he had emerged
from his lair merely that he might meet her. She recalled the
admiration in his eyes, the desperate effort with which he had
overcome his shyness and approached her. What irony, if after having
been ignorant, unsuspecting, of her existence during all those years
of her worship, when she had been his more truly than in many a
corporeal marriage, he should love her now that she could only think
of him with pity and contempt. It gave her a fierce shock of
repulsion that he might wish to marry her, dwell even in thought upon
possessing her untouched youth after the lewdness of his own life. She
must crush any such hope in its bulb if she would not hate him and do
him ill when she sincerely wished him well. She reviewed the beaux of
Bath House for one upon whom she might pretend to fix her affections,
and at once, before Warner's inclination ripened into passion; but the
very thought of entering into a serious flirtation with any of those
tight-waisted, tight-trousered exquisites induced a sensation of
ennui, and with Hunsdon she did not care to trifle. He might be
wearisome, but he was good and sincere, and Lady Mary should have him
were it in her power to bring about that eminently proper match.

It was at this point in her reflections that she found herself
opposite the house of the poet.

CHAPTER VIII

She had walked more rapidly than she had been aware of and was shocked
at her apparent unmaidenliness in approaching the house of a man, and
at night, in whom she was irresistibly interested; although, to be
sure, if she walked round the island, to pass his house sooner or
later was inevitable. She was about to turn and hurry home, when she
saw what had appeared to be a shadow detach itself from the tree in
the court and approach her. She recognised Warner and stood rooted to
the ground with terror. All the wild and detestable stories she had
heard of him sprang to her mind in bold