own the truth, she had rebuked herself on the same score when she
found that Hugh Stanbury had not had a word of love to say to her. It
was not that she regretted the grandeur which she had lost, but that
she should, even within her own thoughts, with the consciousness of
her own bosom, have declared herself unable to receive another man's
devotion because of her love for this man who neglected her. Now
she was proud of herself. Whether it might be accounted as good or
ill-fortune that she had ever seen Hugh Stanbury, it must at any rate
be right that she should be true to him now that she had seen him
and had loved him. To know that she loved and that she was not loved
again had nearly killed her. But such was not her lot. She too had
been successful with her quarry, and had struck her game, and brought
down her dear. He had been very violent with her, but his violence
had at least made the matter clear. He did love her. She would
be satisfied with that, and would endeavour so to live that that
alone should make life happy for her. How should she get his
photograph,--and a lock of his hair?--and when again might she have
the pleasure of placing her own hand within his great, rough, violent
grasp? Then she kissed the hand which he had held, and opened the
door of her room, at which her sister was now knocking.

"Nora, dear, will you not come down?"

"Not yet, Emily. Very soon I will."

"And what has happened, dearest?"

"There is nothing to tell, Emily."

"There must be something to tell. What did he say to you?"

"Of course you know what he said."

"And what answer did you make?"

"I told him that it could not be."

"And did he take that,--as final, Nora?"

"Of course not. What man ever takes a No as final?"

"When you said No to Mr. Glascock he took it."

"That was different, Emily."

"But how different? I don't see the difference, except that if you
could have brought yourself to like Mr. Glascock, it would have been
the greatest thing in the world for you, and for all of them."

"Would you have me take a man, Emily, that I didn't care one straw
for, merely because he was a lord? You can't mean that."

"I'm not talking about Mr. Glascock now, Nora."

"Yes, you are. And what's the use? He is gone, and there's an end of
it."

"And is Mr. Stanbury gone?"

"Of course."

"In the same way?" asked Mrs. Trevelyan.

"How can I tell about his ways? No; it is not in the same way. There!
He went in a