hink me disgraced?"

"Yes," said Rosamond, faintly, beginning to sew again automatically.

There was silence. Lydgate thought, "If she has any trust in me--any
notion of what I am, she ought to speak now and say that she does not
believe I have deserved disgrace."

But Rosamond on her side went on moving her fingers languidly.
Whatever was to be said on the subject she expected to come from
Tertius. What did she know? And if he were innocent of any wrong, why
did he not do something to clear himself?

This silence of hers brought a new rush of gall to that bitter mood in
which Lydgate had been saying to himself that nobody believed in
him--even Farebrother had not come forward. He had begun to question
her with the intent that their conversation should disperse the chill
fog which had gathered between them, but he felt his resolution checked
by despairing resentment. Even this trouble, like the rest, she seemed
to regard as if it were hers alone. He was always to her a being
apart, doing what she objected to. He started from his chair with an
angry impulse, and thrusting his hands in his pockets, walked up and
down the room. There was an underlying consciousness all the while
that he should have to master this anger, and tell her everything, and
convince her of the facts. For he had almost learned the lesson that
he must bend himself to her nature, and that because she came short in
her sympathy, he must give the more. Soon he recurred to his intention
of opening himself: the occasion must not be lost. If he could bring
her to feel with some solemnity that here was a slander which must be
met and not run away from, and that the whole trouble had come out of
his desperate want of money, it would be a moment for urging powerfully
on her that they should be one in the resolve to do with as little
money as possible, so that they might weather the bad time and keep
themselves independent. He would mention the definite measures which
he desired to take, and win her to a willing spirit. He was bound to
try this--and what else was there for him to do?

He did not know how long he had been walking uneasily backwards and
forwards, but Rosamond felt that it was long, and wished that he would
sit down. She too had begun to think this an opportunity for urging on
Tertius what he ought to do. Whatever might be the truth about all
this misery, there was one dread which asserted itself.

Lydgate at last seated hims