h a certain trust, but very soon
the good qualities, in which he differed so remarkably from Nigel, and
even the points in which he was deficient and in which Nigel excelled,
made her care for him more. As the years went on, Bertha, who could do
nothing by halves, began to adore Percy more and more. She thought
absolutely nothing of Nigel at all, so very little that she had let him
dangle about without a thought of the past, being under the impression
that he was contented in his married life. When he began again to find
excuses to see her, and to start a sort of friendship, she did not
discourage it, for the very reason that she wanted him to see that
chapter in her life was absolutely closed and forgotten.

* * * * *

His extreme desire that she should come to their entertainment, his
various implications--that Mary should think there was something in it
if she didn't come--then this new suggestion that he was not happy at
home, and, on looking back, Percy's extraordinary behaviour, suddenly
made her see things in a different light. She saw that Nigel probably
now imagined himself in love with her, and that it was not entirely
Percy's imagination; that it was even more necessary than she had
thought to put an end to the friendship. It made her furious when she
thought of it--the selfishness, the treachery--meanly to throw her over
because Mary was rich, and afterwards to try and come back and spoil
both their homes in amusing himself by a romance with her. Even if
Bertha had not cared for her husband, Nigel would have been the very
last man in the world she could have looked upon from that point of
view. Amusing as he was, she never thought of him without a slightly
contemptuous smile. And she loved Percy so very much; he was so entirely
without self-interest: he might have a certain amount of harmless
vanity, but he was purely unworldly, generous, broadminded and good, and
his own advantage was the very last thing that ever entered his head.

Until the trouble about Nigel she had feared he was growing cold, but
Percy's conduct on that subject had thoroughly satisfied her. He had
been very jealous but kind to her: he trusted and believed in her when
she was frank, and he certainly seemed more in love with her than ever.
Percy was so reliable, so true and _real_. She took up the dignified,
charmingly flattered photograph of him. ... What a noble forehead! What
a beautiful figure he had!