rest had gone, she clung to the luxury still, and sitting bent forward, with her hands about her knees, she began to brood over tumbled images of a wrong done to her.  She had two distinct visions of herself, constantly alternating and acting like the temptation of two devils.  One represented her despicable in feature, and bade her die; the other showed a fair face, feeling which to be her own, Emilia had fits of intolerable rage.  This vision prevailed; and this wicked side of her humanity saved her.  Active despair is a passion that must be superseded by a passion.  Passive despair comes later; it has nothing to do with mental action, and is mainly a corruption or degradation of our blood.  The rage in Emilia was blind at first, but it rose like a hawk, and singled its enemy.  She fixed her mind to conceive the foolishness of putting out a face that her rival might envy, and of destroying anything that had value.  The flattery of beauty came on her like a warm garment.  When she opened her eyes, seeing what she was and where, she almost smiled at the silly picture that had given her comfort.  Those men had looked on her admiringly, it was true, but would Wilfrid have ceased to love her if she had been beautiful?  An extraordinary intuition of Wilfrid’s sentiment tormented her now.  She saw herself in the light that he would have seen her by, till she stood with the sensations of an exposed criminal in the dark length of the street, and hurried down it, back, as well as she could find her way, to the friendly policeman.

Her question on reaching him, “Are you married?” was prodigiously astonishing, and he administered the rebuff of an affirmative with severity.  “Then,” said Emilia, “when you go home, let me go with you to your wife.  Perhaps she will consent to take care of me for this night.”  The policeman coughed mildly and replied, “It’s plain you know nothing of women—­begging your pardon, miss,—­for I can see you’re a lady.”  Emilia repeated her petition, and the policeman explained the nature of women.  Not to be baffled, Emilia said, “I think your wife must be a good woman.”  Hereat the policeman laughed, arming “that the best of them knew what bad suspicions was.”  Ultimately, he consented to take her to his wife, when he was relieved, after the term of so many minutes.  Emilia stood at a distance, speculating on the possible choice he would make of a tune to accompany his monotonous walk to and fro, and on the certainty of his wearing any tune to nothing.

She was in a bed, sleeping heavily, a little before dawn.

The day that followed was her day of misery.  The blow that had stunned her had become as a loud intrusive pulse in her head.  By this new daylight she fathomed the depth, and reckoned the value, of her loss.  And her senses had no pleasure in the light, though there was sunshine.  The woman who was her hostess was kind, but full of her first surprise at the strange visit, and too openly ready for any