ve, though she said no
more. And not another word was said. He turned on his heel, and walked
back down the avenue, with quick, swinging steps, without ever turning
his head. She watched him till he was out of sight, till he was out of
hearing, till the gate swung behind him, and he was gone. She did not
know how she was to get back to the house, over that long stretch of
road, without any one to help her, and thought with a sickening and
failing of her heart of the long way. But in this great, sudden,
unlooked-for revolution of her life she felt no weakness nor failing.
The revulsion was all the greater after the long self-restraint. For
the first time after so long an interval she was again herself.

CHAPTER LII.

That night Lady Markland did not close her eyes. The strength of
resistance, of indignation, of self-assertion, failed her, as was
inevitable in the long and slow hours, during which she looked out, at
first with a certainty, then with a hope, that Theo would come back. He
must come back, she said to herself, even if all were over, which seemed
impossible, impossible!--all in an hour or two, in one afternoon, when
she thought no evil. Still the most prosaic of considerations, the least
important, his clothes, if nothing more, must bring him back. She went
on saying this to herself, till from a half scorn which was in it at
first it came to a kind of despair. He must come back, at all events,
for his clothes! She could scarcely bear Geoff all the afternoon, though
it was for him all this misery was. She never could, nor would, give up
her child: but his society was intolerable to her for the moment; and
she felt that if Theo came and found them together he might think--he
would have a certain right to think. It was a relief to her when at last
Geoff went to bed, silenced in all his questions, chilled, terrified,
yet still heroically restraining himself, and making up his mind that he
was to be sent away. After this she felt a kind of relief, a freedom in
being left to herself, in wandering about the rooms and looking out in
succession at every window that commanded the avenue. When the hour
came to shut up the house she gave the butler an elaborate explanation;
how Mr. Warrender had been obliged to return to the Warren about some
business, how it was possible that he might not come back that night; in
fact, she did not expect him that night, but still he might return. It
was not necessary that any on