She had been seated on the side of a lounge; and now, feeling blindly behind her, she moved the cushions aside, turned and dropped among them, burying her blazing face.

Over her the scorching vertigo swept, subsided, rose, and swept again.

Oh, the horror of it!--the shame, the agonised surprise.

What was this dreadful thing that, for the second time, she had unwittingly done?
And this time it was so much more terrible.

How could such an accident have happened to her?
How could she face her own soul in the disgrace of it?
Fear, loathing, frightened incredulity that this could really be herself, stiffened her body and clinched her hands under her parted lips.