It was all perfectly impossible, and no happiness could possibly come to Henry either--unless he succeeded in consoling Sabine when she should be his wife.

And this was perhaps the bitterest thought of all--that she should ever be consoled as Henry's wife! Then the extreme strangeness of Henry's still being in ignorance of his and Sabine's relations struck him.

She had evidently not yet had the courage to tell the truth, and so the thing would come as a shock--and what would happen then?
Who could say?
In any case, Henry could not feel he had not come up to the scratch.

Would Sabine ever tell Henry the whole story?
He felt sure she would not.

But how could things be expected to go on with the years?
It was all unthinkable now that it had come so close.
It was about five o'clock on the next afternoon that the Princess and her party arrived at Heronac.