They would go, and take her life with them, and she should be left behind, alone for ever; and a great revolt against her fate rose quickly in her breast like a flame before the wind, and then, as if finding nothing to consume, sank down again into its own ashes, and left her more lonely than before.

The voices had ceased now, or else the lovers were speaking very low, fearing, perhaps, that some one might be listening at the window.

If Inez had heard their words at first, she would have stopped her ears or gone to a distance, for the child knew what that sort of honour meant, and had done as much before.

But the unformed sound had been good to hear, and she missed it.

Perhaps they were sitting close and, hand in hand, reading all the sweet unsaid things in one another's eyes.