ssive action of her eyebrows sufficed. She could not bear
concealment, or doubt, or a shadow of dishonesty; and he, gaining force
of soul to join with hers, took her hands and related the contents of
the letter fully. She was pale when he had finished. It was some time
before she was able to get free from the trammels of prejudice, but when
she did, she did without reserve, saying: 'Evan, there is no man who
would have done so much.' These little exaltations and generosities bind
lovers tightly. He accepted the credit she gave him, and at that we need
not wonder. It helped him further to accept herself, otherwise could
he--his name known to be on a shop-front--have aspired to her still?
But, as an unexampled man, princely in soul, as he felt, why, he might
kneel to Rose Jocelyn. So they listened to one another, and blinded the
world by putting bandages on their eyes, after the fashion of little
boys and girls.

Meantime the fair being who had brought these two from the ends of
the social scale into this happy tangle, the beneficent Countess, was
wretched. When you are in the enemy's country you are dependent on the
activity and zeal of your spies and scouts, and the best of these--Polly
Wheedle, to wit--had proved defective, recalcitrant even. And because a
letter had been lost in her room! as the Countess exclaimed to herself,
though Polly gave her no reasons. The Countess had, therefore, to
rely chiefly upon personal observation, upon her intuitions, upon her
sensations in the proximity of the people to whom she was opposed;
and from these she gathered that she was, to use the word which seemed
fitting to her, betrayed. Still to be sweet, still to smile and to
amuse,--still to give her zealous attention to the business of the
diplomatist's Election, still to go through her church-services
devoutly, required heroism; she was equal to it, for she had remarkable
courage; but it was hard to feel no longer at one with Providence. Had
not Providence suggested Sir Abraham to her? killed him off at the right
moment in aid of her? And now Providence had turned, and the assistance
she had formerly received from that Power, and given thanks for so
profusely, was the cause of her terror. It was absolutely as if she
had been borrowing from a Jew, and were called upon to pay fifty-fold
interest.

'Evan!' she writes in a gasp to Harriet. 'We must pack up and depart.
Abandon everything. He has disgraced us all, and ruined himself.