And yet after all the change scarcely operated for he talked to her of Mrs.Newsome in these days as he had never talked before.

He had hitherto observed in that particular a discretion and a law; considerations that at present broke down quite as if relations had altered.

They hadn't REALLY altered, he said to himself, so much as that came to; for if what had occurred was of course that Mrs.Newsome had ceased to trust him, there was nothing on the other hand to prove that he shouldn't win back her confidence.

It was quite his present theory that he would leave no stone unturned to do so; and in fact if he now told Maria things about her that he had never told before this was largely because it kept before him the idea of the honour of such a woman's esteem.

His relation with Maria as well was, strangely enough, no longer quite the same; this truth--though not too disconcertingly--had come up between them on the renewal of their meetings.