let himself in very
silently. She did not expect him so soon, and when he entered the
drawing-room was startled to see him. She had not as yet put the
letter, as she had intended, on his dressing-table, but still had it in
her pocket; nor had it occurred to her that he would as yet have known
the truth. She looked at him when he entered, but did not at first
utter a word. "Mary," he said.

"Well; is anything the matter?"

It was possible that she had not found the letter,--possible, though
very improbable. But he had brought his mind so firmly to the point of
owning what was to be owned and defending what might be defended, that
he hardly wished for escape in that direction. At any rate, he was not
prepared to avail himself of it. "Did you find the letter?" he asked.

"I found a letter."

"Well!"

"Of course I am sorry to have intruded upon so private a
correspondence. There it is." And she threw the letter to him. "Oh,
George!"

He picked up the letter, which had fallen to the ground, and, tearing
it into bits, threw the fragments into the grate. "What do you believe
about it, Mary?"

"Believe!"

"Do you think that I love any one as I love you?"

"You cannot love me at all,--unless that wicked, wretched creature is a
liar."

"Have I ever lied to you? You will believe me?"

"I do not know."

"I love no one in the world but you."

Even that almost sufficed for her. She already longed to have her arms
round his neck and to tell him that it was all forgiven;--that he at
least was forgiven. During the whole morning she had been thinking of
the angry words she would say to him, and of the still more angry words
which she would speak of that wicked, wicked viper. The former were
already forgotten; but she was not as yet inclined to refrain as to
Mrs. Houghton. "Oh, George, how could you bear such a woman as
that;--that you should let her write to you in such language? Have you
been to her?"

"What, to-day?"

"Yes, to-day."

"Certainly not. I have just come from my brother."

"You will never go into the house again! You will promise that!"

Here was made the first direct attack upon his divine superiority! Was
he, at his wife's instance, to give a pledge that he would not go into
a certain house under any circumstances? This was the process of
bringing his nose down to the ground which he had feared. Here was the
first attempt made by his wife to put her foot on his neck. "I think
that I had better