and Mrs. Arden on their sturdy roadster towards
Lea Farm.
CHAPTER XXII. A FATAL SPARK.
And so it chanced; which in those dark
And fireless halls was quite amazing,
Did we not know how small a spark
Can set the torch of love ablazing.
T. MOORE.
Aurelia rode home in perplexity, much afraid of the combustibles at
her girdle, and hating the task her sister had forced on her. She
felt as if her heedless avowals had been high treason to her husband;
and yet Harriet was her elder, and those assurances that as a true
woman she was bound to clear up the mystery, made her cheeks burn
with shame, and her heart thrill with the determination to vindicate
her husband, while the longing to know the face of one who so loved
her was freshly awakened.
She was strongly inclined to tell him all, indeed she knew herself
well enough to be aware that half a dozen searching questions would
draw out the whole confession of her own communication and Harriet's
unworthy suspicions; and humiliating as this would be, she longed for
the opportunity. Here, however, she was checked in her meditations
by a stumble of her horse, which proved to have lost a shoe. It was
necessary to leave the short cut, and make for the nearest forge,
and when the mischief was repaired, to ride home by the high road.
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