'He set spies on you?'
'So we may presume.'
Emma went through a sphere of tenuious reflections in a flash.
'He will rue it. Perhaps now... he may now be regretting his wretched frenzy. And Tony could pardon; she has the power of pardoning in her heart.'
'Oh! certainly, dear. But tell me why it is you speak to-night rather unlike the sedate, philosophical Emma; in a tone-well, tolerably sentimental?'
'I am unaware of it,' said Emma, who could have retorted with a like reproach. 'I am anxious, I will not say at present for your happiness, for your peace; and I have a hope that possibly a timely word from some friend—Lukin or another—might induce him to consider.'
'To pardon me, do you mean?' cried Diana, flushing sternly.
'Not pardon. Suppose a case of faults on both sides.'
'You address a faulty person, my dear. But do you know that you are hinting at a reconcilement?'
'Might it not be?'