One or other of these ladies--of course it was managed so delicately that he really could not have determined to which of them he owed the impulse--succeeded in suggesting to him that he had missed certain obvious meanings in Beatrice's behaviour whilst he resided with her at Dunfield.

Certainly, when he looked back at those days from his present standpoint, Beatrice did appear to have conducted herself singularly, the mode of her departure and leave-taking being above all curious.

Was it possible that--?
The question formed itself at last, and was the beginning of conviction.

He sought Beatrice's society, at first merely for the sake of resolving his doubts, and behold, she no longer shrank from him as formerly.

Of course he might take it for granted that she knew the details of his story, seeing that her closest intimates, Mrs.Baxendale and Mrs.Birks, were ignorant of none of them.
Had she, then, waited for signs of his freedom?
Did his revival of the old tone in their conversations strike her as something meant to be significant, meant to convey to her certain suggestions?
It was so in point of fact, and Wilfrid could not be long, his eyes now open, without convincing himself that the girl loved him ardently, that it cost her struggles with herself to avoid a revelation of her feeling.