the luxury of forgiving her
lover, of making sure that her image would not dwell in his mind as
that of a self-righteous woman who had turned coldly from his error,
perhaps from his repentance.

A little after midnight, she rose from bed, slipped on her
dressing-gown, and sat down by the still burning lamp to write what her
passion dictated:

'Why should you distrust my ability, or my willingness to understand
you? It would have been so much better if you had sent what you first
wrote. These few lines do not even let me know whether you think
yourself to blame. Why do you leave me to form a judgment of things as
they appear on the surface? If you _wish_ to explain, if you sincerely
feel that I am in danger of wronging you by misconstruction, come to me
as soon as you have received this note. If you will not come, then at
least write to me--the letter you at first thought of sending. This
afternoon (Friday) I return to London, but you know my address there.
Don't think because I wrote so briefly that I have judged you.

S. W.'

To have committed this to paper was a relief. In the morning she would
read it over and consider again whether she wished to send it.

On the table lay _The Critical_. She opened it once more at the page
that concerned her, and glanced over the first few lines. Then, having
put the lamp nearer to the bed, she again lay down, not to sleep but to
read.

This essay was not so repugnant to her mind or her feelings as when she
first became acquainted with it. Its bitterness no longer seemed to be
directed against herself. There was much in it with which she could
have agreed at any time during the last six months, and many strokes of
satire, which till the other day would have offended her, she now felt
to be legitimate. As she read on, a kind of anger such as she had never
experienced trembled along her nerves. Was it not flagrantly true that
English society at large made profession of a faith which in no sense
whatever it could be said sincerely to hold? Was there not every reason
to believe that thousands of people keep up an ignoble formalism,
because they feared the social results of declaring their severance
from the religion of the churches? This was a monstrous evil; she had
never till this moment understood the scope of its baneful effects. But
for the prevalence of such a spirit of hypocrisy, Godwin Peak would
never have sinned against his honour. Why was it not declared in
trump