The thing was known.

Soon the full consequences would be upon her, the consequences on which she dared not dwell.

Shudderingly she tried to close her eyes to the things that might lie before her, to the things at which Grio had hinted, the things of which she had lain thinking--even while they were distant and uncertain--through many a night of bitter fear and fevered anticipation.
They were at hand now, and though she averted her thoughts, she knew it.
But the wind is tempered to the shorn.

Even as the prospect of future ill can dominate the present, embitter the sweetest cup, and render thorny the softest bed, so, sometimes, present good has the power to obscure the future evil.

As Anne sank back on the settle, her trembling limbs almost declining to bear her, her eyes fell on her companion.
Failing to rouse her, he had seated himself on the other side of the hearth, his elbows on his knees, his chin on his hands, in an attitude of deep thought.