he
dressing-table, she sipped it from time to time while she fastened up
her hair. Like Leigh, she too had come to a new realisation of self,
but the revelation was attended with far less of spiritual turmoil. It
was as if she were making her own acquaintance over again, and the
process was not without fascination. He had called her cruel. Was
there truth in the charge? She had never been conscious of intentional
cruelty, and yet she was intellectual enough to see that her husband
might have good reason to accuse her of it in her treatment of him.
But Leigh had no such cause of complaint, unless he would hold her
responsible for her beauty. There must be some expression in her face
which she herself had never seen, which she could never summon from its
reflection in the mirror, an expression of desire, impersonal it might
be, but moving the beholder to a personal response.

She was pleased, rather than distressed, by Leigh's condemnation. In
spite of his talk of cruelty and vanity, he had said he did not know a
woman could be so sweet. She knew she could be sweet to the man she
loved, and that no one had ever yet divined how much she had to give.
She placed the back of her hand against her lips and tried to imagine
how they had felt to him when he kissed them. The youthfulness of the
action and the fancy made her smile, and showed her how far she had
gone in thinking of him as a lover.

Her sense of guilt was less acute than her realisation of the
difficulty of her position. It came upon her that she was one day
nearer discovery and condemnation. As yet no plan of action had taken
final shape in her mind. She did not know whether she would wait for
discovery to come and find her, or take the initiative. Leigh's
declaration had acted as a sedative on her unhappiness, and had
banished the desire of an explanation with her husband. She would fain
arrest time while the situation remained as it was, while Leigh was not
yet lost to her for good. What did she mean by allowing him to kiss
her a second time? Did she wish to make amends for the suffering she
had caused, or was her acquiescence a fatal admission? In the latter
case, what hope or consolation could she find in this new discovery?

Cardington too came in for a share of her thought, but scarcely for a
share of her concern. Whatever his suspicions or knowledge, she was
sure that his affection and loyalty would keep him silent. If his
final outbrea