ve done so."

"You will wilfully disobey me?"

"In that I must." He glared at her, almost as though he were going to
strike her, but she bore his look without flinching. "I have left all
my old friends, Ferdinand, and have given myself heart and soul to
you. No woman did so with a truer love or more devoted intention of
doing her duty to her husband. Your affairs shall be my affairs."

"Well; yes; rather."

She was endeavouring to assure him of her truth, but could understand
the sneer which was conveyed in his acknowledgement. "But you cannot,
nor can I for your sake, abolish the things which have been."

"I wish to abolish nothing that has been. I speak of the future."

"Between our family and that of Mr. Fletcher there has been old
friendship which is still very dear to my father,--the memory of
which is still very dear to me. At your request I am willing to put
all that aside from me. There is no reason why I should ever see
any of the Fletchers again. Our lives will be apart. Should we meet
our greeting would be very slight. The separation can be effected
without words. But if you demand an absolute promise,--I must tell my
father."

"We will go home at once," he said instantly, and aloud. And home
they went, back to London, without exchanging a word on the journey.
He was absolutely black with rage, and she was content to remain
silent. The promise was not given, nor, indeed, was it exacted under
the conditions which the wife had imposed upon it. He was most
desirous to make her subject to his will in all things, and quite
prepared to exercise tyranny over her to any extent,--so that her
father should know nothing of it. He could not afford to quarrel with
Mr. Wharton. "You had better go to bed," he said, when he got her
back to town;--and she went, if not to bed, at any rate into her own
room.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

Sir Orlando Retires

"He is a horrid man. He came here and quarrelled with the other man
in my house, or rather down at Richmond, and made a fool of himself,
and then quarrelled with his wife and took her away. What fools, what
asses, what horrors men are! How impossible it is to be civil and
gracious without getting into a mess. I am tempted to say that I will
never know anybody any more." Such was the complaint made by the
Duchess to Mrs. Finn a few days after the Richmond party, and from
this it was evident that the latter affair had not passed without
notice.

"Did he make a noi