"What do you want more ?" "Didn't HE," the Colonel inquired, "want anything more?
Or didn't, for that matter, poor Charlotte herself ?" She kept her eyes on him; there was a manner in it that half answered.
"They were thoroughly in love.

She might have been his--" She checked herself; she even for a minute lost herself.

"She might have been anything she liked--except his wife." "But she wasn't," said the Colonel very smokingly.
"She wasn't," Mrs.Assingham echoed.
The echo, not loud but deep, filled for a little the room.

He seemed to listen to it die away; then he began again.

"How are you sure ?" She waited before saying, but when she spoke it was definite.