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She sank down on the sofa again, crouching a the festive ripples of her dress like a strickenaze at her without ht--"

"You thought?"

"Ah, don't askat her, he saw the saht, facing hinity

"I do ask you"

"Well, then: there were things in that letter you asked me to read--"

"My husband's letter?"

"Yes"

"I had nothing to fear fro notoriety, scandal, on the fa his face in his hands

The silence that followed lay on thes final and irrevocable It seerave-stone; in all the wide future he saw nothing that would ever lift that load from his heart He did not move from his place, or raise his head fro into utter darkness

"At least I loved you--" he brought out

On the other side of the hearth, from the sofa-corner where he supposed that she still crouched, he heard a faint stifled crying like a child's He started up and ca? Nothing's done that can't be undone I' to be" He had her in his arms, her face like a wet flower at his lips, and all their vain terrors shrivelling up like ghosts at sunrise The one thing that astonished hi with her across the width of the rooave hi in his arms, and she put him aside and stood up

"Ah, my poor Newland--I suppose this had to be But it doesn't in the least alter things," she said, looking down at him in her turn from the hearth

"It alters the whole of life for ed to May Welland; and I'm married"

He stood up too, flushed and resolute "Nonsense! It's too late for that sort of thing We've no right to lie to other people or to ourselves We won't talk of yourMay after this?"