o
connection! He might have had here his part, she knew tremulously; it
might have been his role to stand here beside Aaron Burr, and, with a
passionately humble and grateful heart, she nursed the memory of that
winter night when he had sworn to her that from that hour he and this
enterprise should be strangers.

There had been days and weeks of preliminaries to the actual trial for
high treason, but she had not before been in this hall. All her delicacy
shrank from the thought of sitting here beside her husband, conscious of
his consciousness that she knew all that might have been, and saw in
fancy more prisoners at the bar than one. No man would like that. He had
come often to the Capitol during the days of skirmishing prior to the
general engagement; had he not done so, it would have been at once
remarked. She expressed no desire to accompany him, nor did he ever ask
her to do so. She was aware of the general surprise that he had no place
among the Government counsel. Whether or not such place had been offered
to him, pressed upon him, she did not know, but she thought it possible
that this was the case. If so, he had refused as was right. Acceptance,
she knew, would have been impossible.

All through these months there had been between them a silent pact, a
covenant to avoid all superfluous mention of the topic which met them on
every hand, from every mouth, in every letter or printed sheet. Rand was
much occupied with important cases, much in demand in various portions
of the state, much away from home. She was not a woman to demand as her
right entrance into every chamber of another's soul. Her own had its
hushed rooms, its reticences, its altars built to solitude; she was
aware that beyond, below, above the fair chamber where he entertained
her were other spaces in her husband's nature. Into some she looked as
through open door and clear windows, but others were closed to her, and
she was both too proud and too pure of thought to search for keys that
had not been offered her.

She knew that her husband had not meant to be absent from Richmond that
day. An unexpected turn in the case he was conducting had compelled his
presence in Williamsburgh, and on the other hand, in Richmond, the
labour of finding an impartial jury had been brought to a sudden end by
Burr's _coup de main_ in refusing to challenge and calmly accepting as
prejudiced a twelve as perhaps, in the United States of America, ever
decided whether a