"What! _you_ couldn't have believed it?" cried Obed Chute.
"Never! never!" said Zillah; "though _she_ tried hard to make me."
Hilda had no more to say. The news about Gualtier, and the truth as to her parentage, were fresh shocks, and already her strength began to give way. Her spirit could not long be kept up to that height of audacity to which she had raised it. Beneath all was the blackness of her despair, in which was not one ray of hope.
She rose in silence. Obed accompanied her to her carriage, which was yet waiting there. Soon the wheels rattled over the gravel, and Hilda drove toward Florence.
Obed walked out and sauntered through the grounds. There was a twinkle in his eye. He walked on and on, till he reached a place in the depths of the woods far away from the villa.
Then he gave utterance to his feelings.
How?
Did he clench his fists, curse Heaven, weep, and rave?
Not he; not Obed.
He burst forth into peals of stentorian laughter.