They two had been standing all but still during the greater part of the time that they had been talking, and Alice, as she sat herself down, found that her feet were numbed with the damp that had penetrated through her boots.

Certainly Mr Palliser had reason to be angry that his wife should have remained out in the night air so long,--though perhaps not with Alice.
And then she began to think of what had been told her; and to try to think of what, under such circumstances, it behoved her to do.

She could not doubt that Lady Glencora had intended to declare that, if opportunity offered itself, she would leave her husband, and put herself under the protection of Mr Fitzgerald; and Alice, moreover, had become painfully conscious that the poor deluded unreasoning creature had taught herself to think that she might excuse herself for this sin to her own conscience by the fact that she was childless, and that she might thus give to the man who had married her an opportunity of seeking another wife who might give him an heir.

Alice well knew how insufficient such an excuse would be even to the wretched woman who had framed it for herself.

But still it would operate,--manifestly had already operated, on her mind, teaching her to hope that good might come out of evil.