Love had awakened the woman; and the woman was not so unsuspecting, so easily deceived as the child had been.

She understood what her cousin and her aunt were about; they were trying to take her lover from her! She understood her aunt's looks and tones, her cousin's temper and hysteria.

She sat down upon the floor and cried with a breaking heart.

The injustice of it! The meanness of it! The wickedness of a world where even her sweet cousin, even her loving aunt were wicked! She sat there on the floor a long time, abandoned to the misery of a first shattered illusion, a misery the more cruel because never before had either cousin or aunt said or done anything to cause her real pain.

The sound of voices coming through the open window from below made her start up and go out on the balcony.