after time in the last few days Alicia had told herself that she
could bear it no longer. At one moment she believed nothing, the next,
nothing was too terrible for her to believe; now she would fly to
Australia, or home, or anywhere out of New Lindsey; now a
straightforward challenge to Medland alone would serve her turn.
Sometimes she felt as if she could put the whole thing on one side; five
minutes later found her pinning her whole life on the issue of it. Under
her guarded face and calm demeanour, the storm of divided and
conflicting instincts and passions raged, and long solitary rambles
became a necessary outlet for what she dared show to none. She shrank
from seeing Medland, and yet longed to speak with him; she felt that to
mention the topic to him was impossible, and yet, if they met,
inevitable; that she would not have strength to face him, and yet could
not let him go without clearing up the mystery. She told herself at one
moment that she hardly knew him, at the next that between them nothing
could be too secret for utterance.

What she hoped and feared befell her that morning. She went out for a
walk in the Park, and before long she met the Premier, with his daughter
and Norburn. The two last were laughing and talking--their quarrel was
quite forgotten now--and Medland himself, she thought, looked as though
his load of care were a little less heavy. The two men explained that
they were on their way--a roundabout way, they confessed--to the
Council, and had seized the chance of some fresh air, while Daisy was
full of stories about yesterday's triumph, that left room only for a
passing reference to yesterday's tragedy.

"I didn't like him at all," she said; "but still it's dreadful--a man
one knew ever so slightly!"

Alicia agreed, and the next instant she found herself practically alone
with Medland; for Daisy ran off to pick a wild-flower that caught her
eye in the wood, and Norburn followed her. Not knowing whether to be
glad or sorry, she made no effort to escape, and was silent while
Medland began to speak of his prospects in that evening's division.

Suddenly she paused in her walk and lifted her eyes to his.

"You look happier," she said.

Medland's conscience smote him: he was looking happier because the man
was dead.

"It's at the prospect of being a free man to-morrow," he answered, with
a smile. "You know, Cincinnatus was very happy."

"But you're not like that."

"No, I suppose not. Sa