Tita is whispering to Hescott--something very secret, undoubtedly.

Her small face is upturned to his, and very earnest.
_His_ face.
Rylton never forgets his face! Tita is speaking--she is smiling--she leans toward her companion; her voice is full of a delicious confidence.
"Well, remember it is a secret--a secret between us." Rylton draws back as if stabbed.

He would have given his soul to hear the end of this terrible beginning--this beginning that, at all events, sounds so terrible to _him;_ but the fact that he _is_ longing to hear, that he has been listening, makes him cold from head to heel.
He moves away silently.

Mrs.Bethune, catching his arm, says quickly: "You heard--a secret--a secret between those two--_you heard!"_ There is something delirious in her tone--something that speaks of revenge perfected, that through all his agitation is understood by him.

He flings her hand aside, and goes swiftly onwards alone into the dense darkness of the trees beyond, damning himself as he goes.
A very rage of hatred, of horror of his own conduct, is the first misery that assails him, and after that---- After that he sees only Tita sitting there with Hescott beside her--he whispering to her, and she to him.
He stops in his rapid walk, and pulls himself together: he must have time--time to think, to control himself, to work it all out.
Things seem to come back to him with a strange clearness.