n without seeing his father. Neither to his mind
nor to hers was any comfort brought by that grammatical rule in
which Miss Baker had found so much consolation. For both of them the
separation was now a thing completed. Each knew enough of the other
to feel that that other's pride was too high to admit of his or her
making any first fresh advancement.

George endeavoured to persuade himself that he was glad of what he
had done; but he failed utterly. He had loved her, did love her
dearly, and found that he never valued her as he did now. She had
behaved shamefully to him. He said that to himself over and over
again. But what had that to do with love? He did not love her the
less because she had made public his letter, the secrets of his
heart, that which should have been as private as the passion of
her own bosom. He could not love her less because she talked over
these with another man, however much he might feel himself bound to
cast her off for doing so. So he shut himself up in his chambers;
wrote pages for his new book that were moody, misanthropical, and
unbelieving; and on the whole was very unhappy.

Nor was Caroline much better able to bear the shock; though with her
there was more propriety of demeanour under the blow, and a better
mental control. That was of course, for she was a woman--and being a
woman, she had to take care that the world knew nothing of what was
going on within her heart.

For two days she remained perfectly calm. She allowed herself no vent
whatever for her feelings. She made the breakfast; sat close at her
tambour frame, or more frequently close at her book; read aloud to
her aunt; went out and made calls; and attended minutely to all the
ordinary occupations of her life. Her aunt never once caught her with
a tear in her eye, never saw her sitting thoughtful, unoccupied, with
her head leaning on her arm. Had she done so, she would have spoken
to her about George. As it was, she did not dare to do so. There was
during these days, and indeed outwardly for many days afterwards,
an iron stubbornness about Caroline which frightened Miss Baker
and altogether prevented her from alluding to the possibility of a
reconciliation. Nothing could be more gentle, nay, more obedient,
than Caroline's manner and way with her aunt at this time: she
yielded to her in everything; but her aunt perceived that all
utterance as to the one subject which was nearest to both their
hearts was effectually forbidd