It remained for the physician,
summoned by Robert, in his horror at her delirium, to discover that her
brain had long been in a state of irritation, which had become aggravated
to such a degree that death was even to be desired. Could she yet
survive, it could hardly be to the use of her intellect.

Robert described poor Owen's impetuous misery, and the cares which he
lavished on the unconscious sufferer, mentioning him with warmth and
tenderness that amazed Honor, from one so stern of judgment. Nay, Robert
was more alive to the palliations of Owen's conduct than she was herself.
She grieved over the complicated deceit, and resented the cruelty to the
wife with the keen severity of secluded womanhood, unable to realize the
temptations of young-manhood.

'Why could he not have told me?' she said. 'I could so easily have
forgiven him for generous love, if I alone had been offended, and there
had been no falsehood; but after the way he has used us all, and chiefly
that poor young thing, I can never feel that he is the same.'

And, though the heart that knew no guile had been saved from suffering,
the thought of the intimacy that she had encouraged, and the wishes she
had entertained for Phoebe, filled her with such dismay, that it required
the sight of the innocent, serene face, and the sound of the happy,
unembarrassed voice, to reassure her that her darling's peace had not
been wrecked. For, though Owen had never overpassed the bounds of the
familiar intercourse of childhood, there had been an implication of
preference in his look and tone; nor had there been error in the
intuition of poor Edna's jealous passion. Something there was of
involuntary reverence that had never been commanded by the far more
beautiful and gifted girl who had taken him captive.

So great was the shock that Honora moved about mechanically, hardly able
to think. She knew that in time she should pardon her boy; but she could
not yearn to do so till she had seen him repent. He had sinned too
deeply against others to be taken home at once to her heart, even though
she grieved over him with deep, loving pity, and sought to find the
original germs of error rather in herself than in him.

Had she encouraged deceit by credulous trust? Alas! alas! that should
but have taught him generosity. It was the old story. Fond affection
had led her to put herself into a position to which Providence did not
call her, and to which she was, therefore, u