They went farther, much farther than Mrs. Charmond had
meant to go; but she could not begin her conversation, and in
default of it kept walking.
"I have seen your father," she at length resumed. "And--I am much
troubled by what he told me."
"What did he tell you? I have not been admitted to his confidence
on anything he may have said to you."
"Nevertheless, why should I repeat to you what you can easily
divine?"
"True--true," returned Grace, mournfully. "Why should you repeat
what we both know to be in our minds already?"
"Mrs. Fitzpiers, your husband--" The moment that the speaker's
tongue touched the dangerous subject a vivid look of self-
consciousness flashed over her, in which her heart revealed, as by
a lightning gleam, what filled it to overflowing. So transitory
was the expression that none but a sensitive woman, and she in
Grace's position, would have had the power to catch its meaning.
Upon her the phase was not lost.
"Then you DO love him!" she exclaimed, in a tone of much surprise.
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