Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/365

Rh face. "You do not complain, but I see—and feel—and know that you are miserable—and must remain so, as long as you keep those walls of impenetrable ice about your still warm and palpitating heart;—and I am miserable too. Deign to smile on me, and I am happy: trust me, and you shall be happy also, for if you are a woman, I can make you so—and I will do it in spite of yourself!" he muttered between his teeth, "and as for others, the question is between ourselves alone: you cannot injure your husband, you know; and no one else has any concern in the matter."

"I have a son, Mr. Hargrave, and you have a mother," said I, retiring from the window, whither he had followed me.

"They need not know," he began, but before anything more could be said on either side, Esther and Arthur re-entered the room. The former glanced at Walter's flushed, excited countenance, and then at mine—a little flushed and excited too, I dare say, though from far