"I was a bond woman—under engagements that tied me—I did not dare do as I felt. I understand it all now."
"Do you like to tell me how it happened?"
"I like it very much. I want that you should know just how it was. I was pressed into those engagements without my heart being in them, and indeed very much against my will; but I was dazzled by a vision of worldly glory that made me too weak to resist. Then thoughts of another kind began to rise within me; I saw that worldly glory was not the sufficient thing I had thought it; and as my eyes got clear, I found I had given no love where I had given my promise. Then that consciousness hampered me in every action."
"But you did not break with him—with Mr. Carlisle?"
"Because I was such a bondwoman, as I told you. I did not know what I might do—what was right,—and I wanted to do right then; till I went to Plassy. Aunt Caxton set me free."
Mr. Rhys was silent a little.
"Do you remember coming to visit the old window in the ruins, just before you went to Plassy that time?" he said, looking round at her with a smile.
His wife though she was, Eleanor could not help a warm flush of consciousness coming over her at the recollection.
"I remember," she said demurely. "It was in December."
"What were you afraid of at that time?"