a statement of affairs.
She had then allowed herself to be carried off to Amalfi, and had there,
while entirely declining to admit that she was ill, been clearly doing
her best to recover health and nerve sufficient to come to some
decision, to grapple with some crisis which Marcella also felt to be
impending--though as to why it should be impending, or what the nature
of it might be, she could only dread and guess.

There was much bitter yearning in the girl's heart as she sat, breathed
on by the soft Italian wind blowing from this enchanted sea. The inner
cry was that her mother did not love her, had never loved her, and might
even now--weird, incredible thought!--be planning to desert her. Hallin
was dead--who else was there that cared for her or thought of her? Betty
Macdonald wrote often, wild, "_schwaermerisch_" letters. Marcella looked
for them with eagerness, and answered them affectionately. But Betty
must soon marry, and then all that would be at an end. Meanwhile
Marcella knew well it was Betty's news that made Betty's adoration
doubly welcome. Aldous Raeburn--she never did or could think of him
under his new name--was apparently in London, much occupied in politics,
and constantly, as it seemed, in Betty's society. What likelihood was
there that her life and his would ever touch again? She thought often of
her confession to Hallin, but in great perplexity of feeling. She had,
of course, said no word of secrecy to him at the time. Such a demand in
a man's last hour would have been impossible. She had simply followed a
certain mystical love and obedience in telling him what he asked to
know, and in the strong spontaneous impulse had thought of nothing
beyond. Afterwards her pride had suffered fresh martyrdom. Could he,
with his loving instinct, have failed to give his friend some sign? If
so, it had been unwelcome, for since the day of Hallin's funeral she and
Aldous had been more complete strangers than before. Lady Winterbourne,
Betty, Frank Leven, had written since her father's death; but from him,
nothing.

By the way, Frank Leven had succeeded at Christmas, by old Sir Charles
Leven's unexpected death, to the baronetcy and estates. How would that
affect his chances with Betty?--if indeed there were any such chances
left.

As to her own immediate future, Marcella knew from many indications that
Mellor would be hers at once. But in her general tiredness of mind and
body she was far more conscious of the