im, perfectly silent; and he sat there,
silent also. He hardly knew how to go on with the interview. He
wanted her to defend herself, but this was the very thing which she
did not intend to do. "May I go now?" she asked, after awhile.

"No; not quite yet. Sit down, Caroline; sit down. I wish to speak to
you. George Bertram has been here, and there has been that between
you of which you are ashamed to speak!"

"I never said so, Sir Henry--nor will I allow you to say so. There
has been that between us to-day which I would rather bury in silence.
But if you command me, I will tell you all."

"Command! you are always talking of commands."

"I have to do so very often. In such marriages as ours they must be
spoken of--must be thought of. If you command me, I will tell you. If
you do not, I will be silent."

Sir Henry hardly knew what answer to make to this. His object was to
frighten his wife. That there had been words between her and George
Bertram of which she, as his wife, would be afraid to tell, he had
been thoroughly convinced. Yet she now offered to repeat to him
everything if he would only desire her to do so; and in making this
offer, she seemed to be anything but afraid.

"Sit down, Caroline." She then sat down just opposite to him. "I
should have thought that you would have felt that, circumstanced as
he, and you, and I are, the intercourse between you and him should
have been of the most restrained kind--should have had in it nothing
of the old familiarity."

"Who brought us again together?"

"I did so; trusting to your judgment and good taste."

"I did not wish to see him. I did not ask him here. I would have
remained at home month after month rather than have met him had I
been allowed my own way."

"Nonsense! Why should you have been so afraid to meet him?"

"Because I love him."

As she said this she still looked into his face fearlessly--we may
almost say boldly; so much so that Sir Henry's eyes almost quailed
before hers. On this she had at any rate resolved, that she would
never quail before him.

But by degrees there came across his brow a cloud that might have
made her quail had she not been bold. He had come there determined
not to quarrel with her. An absolute quarrel with her would not suit
him--would not further his plans, as they were connected with Mr.
Bertram at Hadley. But it might be that he could not fail to quarrel
with her. He was not a man without blood in his veins--without