o sit in judgment on that faithful, passionate, broken heart.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. This word is plainly _sin_, though Mr Lemon in his copy tried
to read it _him_--an interpretation which he was obliged to abandon.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE FRUIT OF HIS OWN WAY.

"Say not, This brackish well I will not taste;
Ere long thou may'st give thanks that even this
Is left for thee in such a burning waste."

Reverend Horatius Bonar.

"Tell Mr Louvaine that I desire speech of him."

The page who received this order looked up in apprehension. So
exceedingly stern were Lady Oxford's tone, and _so frowning_ her aspect,
that he trembled for himself, apart from Aubrey. Escaping from that
awful presence at the earliest moment possible, he carried the message
to Aubrey, who when he received it was lounging on a day-bed, or sofa,
with his arms crossed behind his head.

"And you'd best go soon, Sir," said the page, "for her Ladyship looks as
though she could swallow me in two bites."

"Then I rather count I'd best not," said Aubrey, looking very much
indisposed to stir. "What on earth would she have of me? There's no
end to the whims and conceits of women."

He unwreathed his arms and stood up, yawned, and very slowly went
upstairs to the gallery where he had learned that the Countess was
awaiting him. Aubrey Louvaine was at that moment a most unhappy young
man. The first sensation of amazement and horror at the discovery of
the treachery and wickedness of his chosen friends was past, but the
apprehensions for his own safety were not; and as the time went on, the
sense of loss, weariness, and disgust of life, rather grew than
lessened. Worst of all, and beyond all, were two better feelings--the
honest affection which Aubrey had scarcely realised before that he
entertained for Thomas Winter, and the shock and pain of his miserable
fate: and even beyond this, a sense of humiliation, very wholesome yet
very distressing, at the folly of his course, and the wreck which he had
made of his life. How complete a wreck it was he had not discovered
even now: but that he had been very foolish, he knew in his inmost
heart. And when a man is just making that valuable discovery is not the
best time for other men to tell him of it.

That Fate was preparing for him not a sedative but a stimulant, he had
little doubt as he went slowly on his way to the gallery: but