"Yes, I will: for I do believe you care a little for me."
"Then don't you believe anything against our Dame. Keep quiet till you know more. Don't you be so simple as to accuse her to her face, or you'll never learn the truth. Just you watch her quietly, without seeming: and I'll help you. Be a man, and know the truth."
"I will!" said Griffith, grinding his teeth. "And I believe she will come out pure as snow."
"Well, I hope so too," said Ryder, drily. Then she added, "But don't you be seen speaking to me too much, sir, or she will suspect me, and then she will be on her guard with me. When I have anything particular to tell you, I'll cough, so; and then I'll run out into the Grove: nobody goes there now."
Griffith did not see the hussy was contriving a series of assignations. He fell into the trap bodily.
The life this man led was now infernal.
He watched his wife night and day to detect her heart; he gave up hunting, he deserted the "Red Lion;" if he went out of doors, it was but a step; he hovered about the place to see if messages came or went; and he spent hours in his wife's bedroom, watching her, grim, silent, and sombre, to detect her inmost heart. His flesh wasted visibly, and his ruddy colour paled. Hell was in his heart. Ay, two hells: jealousy and suspense.
Mrs. Gaunt saw directly that something was amiss, and ere long she divined what it was.
But, if he was jealous, she was proud as Lucifer. So she met his ever-watchful eye with the face of a marble statue.
Only in secret her heart quaked and yearned, and she shed many a furtive tear, and was sore, sore perplexed.