ble! Her lord! Who was her lord truly? Had she not in her
heart another lord, whom her whole soul would worship, despite her
body's efforts?

And then she began to fear for her beauty; not for her own sake;
not with that sort of sorrow which must attend the waning roses of
those ladies who, in early years, have trusted too much to their
loveliness. No; it was for the sake of him to whom she had sold her
beauty. She would fain perform her part of that bargain. She would
fain give him on his marriage-day all that had been intended in his
purchase. If, having accepted him, she allowed herself to pine and
fade away because she was to be his, would she not in fact be robbing
him? Would not that be unjust? All that she could give him he should
have.

But neither did Sir Henry see any change, nor did Mr. Bertram, nor
those others who were round her. Indeed, hers was not a beauty that
would fade in such manner. When she saw her own eyes heavy with
suppressed wretchedness, she feared for herself. But her power over
herself was great, and that look was gone as soon as others were with
her.

But her worst sufferings were at night. She would wake from her short
slumbers, and see him, him always before her; that him who in the
essence of things was still her lord, the master of her woman's mind,
the lord of her woman's soul. To screen her eyes from that sight, she
would turn her moistened face to the pillow; but her eyeballs would
flash in the darkness, and she would still see him there, there
before her. She would see him as he stood beside her with manly
bashfulness, when on the side of Olivet he first told her that he
loved her. She would see him as he had sometimes sat, in his sweetest
moods, in that drawing-room at Littlebath, talking to her with rapid
utterance, with sweet, but energetic utterance, saying words which
she did not always fully understand, but which she felt to be full of
wit, full of learning, full of truth. Ah, how proud she had been of
him then--so proud of him, though she would never say so! And then
she would see him, as he came to her on that fatal day, boiling in
his wrath, speaking such words as had never before reached her ears;
words, however, of which so many had been tinged by an inexpressible
tenderness.

Then she would turn herself in her bed, and, by a strong effort of
her will, she would for a while throw off such thoughts. She would
count over to herself the chairs and tables she had ordere