fully affected. Lady Alice listened in perfect silence, and kept
silence for some minutes after the conclusion of his speech. Caspar,
leaning with one shoulder against the mantelpiece, looked frowningly
before him, as if he were unconscious of the fact that she had taken her
handkerchief out of her muff, and was pressing it to her cheeks and
eyes. But in reality he was painfully alive to every one of her
movements, and expected a plaintive rejoinder to his accusations. But
none came. The silence irritated him, as it had formerly irritated him
with Lesley. He was obliged at last to ask a question.

"Since you say you did not come to reproach me, may I ask the motive of
your visit?" he asked.

"I scarcely think that it is of any use to tell you now," said his wife,
quietly. She had got rid of her tears now, and had put her handkerchief
away. "I had a sort of fancy that you might like me to tell you with my
own lips something that I felt rather strongly, but you would probably
resent it--and it is only a trifle after all."

She rose from her chair and drew her fur-lined cloak closely round her,
as if preparing to depart.

"I should like to hear it--if I am not troubling you too much," said
Caspar.

She averted her eyes and began slowly to draw on her gloves. "It is
really nothing--I came on a momentary impulse. I have not seen you for a
good many years, and we parted with very angry words on our lips, did we
not?--but I wanted to say that--although you were sometimes angry--I
never knew you do a cruel thing--you were always kind--kindest of all to
creatures that were weak (except, perhaps to me); and I am quite
sure--sure as that I stand here--that you never did the thing of which
they are accusing you. There!"--and she looked straight into his
face--"it is a little thing, no doubt: you have hosts of friends to say
the same thing to you: but my tribute is worth having, perhaps, because,
after all, I am your wife--and in some ways I do understand!"

Caspar's face worked strangely: he bit his lip hard as he looked at her.

"You are generous, Alice," he said, in a low voice, after a pause that
seemed eternal to her.

"Oh, no. Why should you call it generous? I only wanted to say this--and
also--that if I can be of any use to you now, I am ready. A little thing
sometimes turns the course of public opinion. If I were to go to Woburn
Place--to stay with Lesley, for instance--so that all the world could
see that I believ