She had thought to lower this girl into the very dust, and revenge herself on Maurice at the same time by her shameful revelation.

"You do not care, then ?" says she, bitterly disappointed.
Tita does not answer her.

Suddenly her young thoughts have gone backwards, and all at once she remembers many things.

The poison has entered into her.

In a moment, as it were, she is back in that dim conservatory where Maurice (he has never been "he" or "him" to her, as happier girls, who love more and are more beloved, would have styled him)--where Maurice had asked her to marry him.
Now, in some strange fashion, her memory grows alive and compels her to remember how he looked and spoke that night--that night of his proposal to her, when she had asked him if he loved his cousin.
There had been a queer, indescribable change in his face--a sudden pallor, a start! She had thought nothing of it then, but now it comes back to her.