ephen was
but a boy to him. Where the great grief lay was in perceiving that the
very innocence of Elfride in reading her little fault as one so grave
was what had fatally misled him. Had Elfride, with any degree of
coolness, asserted that she had done no harm, the poisonous breath of
the dead Mrs. Jethway would have been inoperative. Why did he not
make his little docile girl tell more? If on that subject he had only
exercised the imperativeness customary with him on others, all might
have been revealed. It smote his heart like a switch when he remembered
how gently she had borne his scourging speeches, never answering him
with a single reproach, only assuring him of her unbounded love.

Knight blessed Elfride for her sweetness, and forgot her fault. He
pictured with a vivid fancy those fair summer scenes with her. He
again saw her as at their first meeting, timid at speaking, yet in her
eagerness to be explanatory borne forward almost against her will.
How she would wait for him in green places, without showing any of the
ordinary womanly affectations of indifference! How proud she was to be
seen walking with him, bearing legibly in her eyes the thought that he
was the greatest genius in the world!

He formed a resolution; and after that could make pretence of slumber no
longer. Rising and dressing himself, he sat down and waited for day.

That night Stephen was restless too. Not because of the unwontedness
of a return to English scenery; not because he was about to meet his
parents, and settle down for awhile to English cottage life. He was
indulging in dreams, and for the nonce the warehouses of Bombay and the
plains and forts of Poonah were but a shadow's shadow. His dream was
based on this one atom of fact: Elfride and Knight had become separated,
and their engagement was as if it had never been. Their rupture must
have occurred soon after Stephen's discovery of the fact of their union;
and, Stephen went on to think, what so probable as that a return of her
errant affection to himself was the cause?

Stephen's opinions in this matter were those of a lover, and not the
balanced judgment of an unbiassed spectator. His naturally sanguine
spirit built hope upon hope, till scarcely a doubt remained in his mind
that her lingering tenderness for him had in some way been perceived by
Knight, and had provoked their parting.

To go and see Elfride was the suggestion of impulses it was impossible
to withstand. At any ra