May it not have been that her bitterest memory even since may be of the speaking of these very words which sent you out into the wide world to hide yourself from men.

I have thought, waking and sleeping, of your position ever since you honoured me with your confidence; and with every hour the conviction has strengthened in me that there is a way out of this situation which sends a man like you into solitude with a heart hopeless and full of pain; and which leaves her perhaps in greater pain, for she has not like you the complete sense of innocence.

But at present there is no way out but through time and thought.

Whatever may be her ideas or wishes she is powerless.

She does not know your thoughts, no matter how she may guess at them.