The emotion thus roused merged, in its turn, into a sense of impatient regret.

"But for Lady Janet's message," she thought to herself, "I might have known my fate by this time!" The slow minutes followed each other drearily.

She paced to and fro in the library, faster and faster, under the intolerable irritation, the maddening uncertainty, of her own suspense.

Ere long, even the spacious room seemed to be too small for her.

The sober monotony of the long book-lined shelves oppressed and offended her.