d, deserted
you! but was it my fault? No, no! Yet I have not the less sought to
forget it. These poor excesses,--these chilling gaieties,--were they not
incurred for you?--and now you come--you--ah, no--spare me!"

Shocked and startled, Constance drew back. Here was a new key to
Godolphin's present life, his dissipation, his thirst for pleasure. Had
he indeed sought to lull the stings of conscience? And she, instead
of soothing, of reconciling him to the past, had she left him alone
to struggle with bitter and unresting thoughts, and to contrast the
devotion of the one lost with the indifference of the one gained? She
crept back to her own chamber, to commune with her heart and be still.

"My dear Percy," said she, the next day, when he carelessly sauntered
into her boudoir before he rode out, "I have a favour to ask of you."

"Who ever denied a favour to Lady Erpingham?"

"Not you, certainly; but my favour is a great one."

"It is granted."

"Let us pass the summer in ----shire."

Godolphin's brow clouded.

"At Wendover Castle?" said he, after a pause.

"We have never been there since our marriage," said Constance evasively.

"Humph!--as you will."

"It was the place," said Constance, "where you, Percy, first told me you
loved!"

The tone of his wife's voice struck on the right chord in Godolphin's
breast; he looked up, and saw her eyes full of tears and fixed upon him.

"Why, Constance," said he, much affected, "who would have thought that
you still cherished that remembrance?"

"Ah! when shall I forget it?" said Constance; "then you loved me!"

"And was rejected."

"Hush! but I believe now that I was wrong."

"No, Constance; you were wrong, for your own happiness, that the
rejection was not renewed."

"Percy!"

"Constance!" and in the accent of that last word there was something
that encouraged Constance, and she threw herself into Godolphin's arms,
and murmured:--

"If I have offended, forgive me; let us be to each other what we once
were."

Words like these from the lips of one in whom such tender supplications,
such feminine yearnings, were not common, subdued Godolphin at once.
He folded her in his arms, and kissing her passionately, whispered, "Be
always thus, Constance, and you will be more to me than ever."

CHAPTER LX.

THE REFORM BILL.--A VERY SHORT

This reconciliation was not so short-lived as matters of the kind
frequently are. There is a Chinese proverb which says: