Had Lady Jocelyn’s intellect been as penetrating as it was masculine, she would have taken him and turned him inside out in a very short time; for one who would bear to see his love look coldly on him rather than endure a minute’s false estimate of his character, and who could yet stoop to concoct a vile plot, must either be mad or simulating the baseness for some reason or other.  She perceived no motive for the latter, and she held him to be sound in the head, and what was spoken from the mouth she accepted.  Perhaps, also, she saw in the complication thus offered an escape for Rose, and was the less inclined to elucidate it herself.  But if her intellect was baffled, her heart was unerring.  A man proved guilty of writing an anonymous letter would not have been allowed to stand long in her room.  She would have shown him to the door of the house speedily; and Evan was aware in his soul that he had not fallen materially in her esteem.  He had puzzled and confused her, and partly because she had the feeling that this young man was entirely trustworthy, and because she never relied on her feelings, she let his own words condemn him, and did not personally discard him.  In fact, she was a veritable philosopher.  She permitted her fellows to move the world on as they would, and had no other passions in the contemplation of the show than a cultured audience will usually exhibit.

‘Strange,—­most strange!  I thought I was getting old!’ she said, and eyed the culprit as judges generally are not wont to do.  ’It will be a shock to Rose.  I must tell you that I can’t regret it.  I would not have employed force with her, but I should have given her as strong a taste of the world as it was in my power to give.  Girls get their reason from society.  But, come! if you think you can make your case out better to her, you shall speak to her first yourself.’

‘No, my lady,’ said Evan, softly.

‘You would rather not?’

‘I could not.’

‘But, I suppose, she’ll want to speak to you when she knows it.’

‘I can take death from her hands, but I cannot slay myself.’

The language was natural to his condition, though the note was pitched high.  Lady Jocelyn hummed till the sound of it was over, and an idea striking her, she said: 

‘Ah, by the way, have you any tremendous moral notions?’

‘I don’t think I have, madam.’

’People act on that mania sometimes, I believe.  Do you think it an outrage on decency for a wife to run away from a mad husband whom they won’t shut up, and take shelter with a friend?  Is that the cause?  Mr. Forth is an old friend of mine.  I would trust my daughter with him in a desert, and stake my hand on his honour.’

‘Oh, Lady Jocelyn!’ cried Evan.  ’Would to God you might ever have said that of me!  Madam, I love you.  I shall never see you again.  I shall never meet one to treat me so generously.  I leave you, blackened in character—­you cannot think of me without contempt.  I can never hope that this will change.  But, for your kindness let me thank you.’