Her brow drooped under his eye.
"I believe you are quite unjust to yourself," he said unwillingly. "Of course, if any man chooses to misinterpret a confidence—"
"No," she said steadily. "I knew. It was quite different from any other time. I remember how uncomfortable I felt afterwards. I did try to influence him—just through, being a woman. There!—it is quite true."
He could not withdraw his eyes from hers—from the mingling of pride, humility, passion, under the dark lashes.
"And if you did, do you suppose that I can blame you?" he said slowly.
He saw that she was holding an inquisition in her own heart, and looking to him as judge. How could he judge?—whatever there might be to judge. He adored her.
For the moment she did not answer him. She clasped her hands round her knees, thinking aloud.
"From the beginning, I remember I thought of him as somebody quite new and fresh to what he was doing—somebody who would certainly be influenced—who ought to be influenced. And then"—she raised her eyes again, half shrinking—"there was the feeling, I suppose, of personal antagonism to Lord Fontenoy! One could not be sorry to detach one of his chief men. Besides, after Castle Luton, George Tressady was so attractive! You did not know him, Aldous; but to talk to him stirred all one's energies; it was a perpetual battle—one took it up again and again, enjoying it always. As we got deeper in the fight I tried never to think of him as a member of Parliament—often I stopped myself from saying things that might have persuaded him, as far as the House was concerned. And yet, of course"—her face, in its nobility, took a curious look of hardness—"I did know all the time that he was coming to think more and more of me—to depend on me. He disliked me at first—afterwards he seemed to avoid me—then I felt a change. Now I see I thought of him all along; just in one capacity—in relation to what I wanted—whether I tried to persuade him or no. And all the time—"
A cloud of pain effaced the frown. She leant her head against her husband's arm.
"Aldous!"—her voice was low and miserable,—"what can his wife have felt towards me? I never thought of her after Castle Luton—she seemed to me such a vulgar, common little being. Surely, surely!—if they are so unhappy, it can't be—my doing; there was cause enough—"