But the humiliation in which she actually found herself before him was more than she had ever dreamed of, more than she could bear.

All those great words of pity and mercy--all that implication of a moral atmosphere to which he could never attain--to end in this story! The effect of it, on herself, rather than on him, was what she had not foreseen.
Aldous raised himself slowly.
"And when did this happen ?" he asked after a moment.
"I told you--the night of the ball--of the murder," she said with a shiver; "we saw Hurd cross the avenue.

I meant to have told you everything at once." "And you gave up that intention ?" he asked her, when he had waited a little for more, and nothing came.
She turned upon him with a flash of the old defiance.
"How could I think of my own affairs ?" "Or of mine ?" he said bitterly.
She made no answer.
Aldous got up and walked to the chimney-piece.

He was very pale, but his eyes were bright and sparkling.

When she looked up at him at last she saw that her task was done.