I do not know why the truth of Thomas's identity did not dawn upon me, but it did not, and I stole away from the gate, thinking that Dorothy, after all, was no better than the other women I had known at various times in my life, and I resolved to tell John what I had seen.

You must remember that the women I had known were of the courts of Mary Stuart and of Guise, and the less we say about them the better.

God pity them! Prior to my acquaintance with Dorothy and Madge I had always considered a man to be a fool who would put his faith in womankind.

To me women were as good as men,--no better, no worse.

But with my knowledge of those two girls there had grown up in me a faith in woman's virtue which in my opinion is man's greatest comforter; the lack of it his greatest torment.
I went back to Eagle Tower and stood at my window looking down the Wye, hoping soon to see Dorothy returning home.