f we were to cling close together," said Mrs. Charmond, "we should
keep each other warm. But," she added, in an uneven voice, "I suppose
you won't come near me for the world!"

"Why not?"

"Because--well, you know."

"Yes. I will--I don't hate you at all."

They consequently crept up to one another, and being in the dark,
lonely and weary, did what neither had dreamed of doing beforehand,
clasped each other closely, Mrs. Charmond's furs consoling Grace's cold
face, and each one's body as she breathed alternately heaving against
that of her companion.

When a few minutes had been spent thus, Mrs. Charmond said, "I am so
wretched!" in a heavy, emotional whisper.

"You are frightened," said Grace, kindly. "But there is nothing to
fear; I know these woods well."

"I am not at all frightened at the wood, but I am at other things."

Mrs. Charmond embraced Grace more and more tightly, and the younger
woman could feel her neighbor's breathings grow deeper and more
spasmodic, as though uncontrollable feelings were germinating.

"After I had left you," she went on, "I regretted something I had said.
I have to make a confession--I must make it!" she whispered, brokenly,
the instinct to indulge in warmth of sentiment which had led this woman
of passions to respond to Fitzpiers in the first place leading her now
to find luxurious comfort in opening her heart to his wife. "I said to
you I could give him up without pain or deprivation--that he had only
been my pastime. That was untrue--it was said to deceive you. I could
not do it without much pain; and, what is more dreadful, I cannot give
him up--even if I would--of myself alone."

"Why? Because you love him, you mean."

Felice Charmond denoted assent by a movement.

"I knew I was right!" said Grace, exaltedly. "But that should not
deter you," she presently added, in a moral tone. "Oh, do struggle
against it, and you will conquer!"

"You are so simple, so simple!" cried Felice. "You think, because you
guessed my assumed indifference to him to be a sham, that you know the
extremes that people are capable of going to! But a good deal more may
have been going on than you have fathomed with all your insight. I
CANNOT give him up until he chooses to give up me."

"But surely you are the superior in station and in every way, and the
cut must come from you."

"Tchut! Must I tell verbatim, you simple child? Oh, I suppose I must! I
shall eat away my heart if I do