Page:The Woman in White.djvu/269

 and weary&mdash;but the sight of it startled me, as if it had been the sight of my own face in the glass after a long illness. The discovery&mdash;I don't know why&mdash;gave me such a shock, that I was perfectly incapable of speaking to her for the moment."

"Did she seem hurt by your silence?"

"I am afraid she was hurt by it. 'You have not got your mother's face,' she said, 'or your mother's heart.  Your mother's face was dark, and your mother's heart, Miss Fairlie, was the heart of an angel.' 'I am sure I feel kindly towards you,' I said, 'though I may not be able to express it as I ought.  Why do you call me Miss Fairlie?&mdash;&mdash;' 'Because I love the name of Fairlie and hate the name of Glyde,' she broke out violently.  I had seen nothing like madness in her before this, but I fancied I saw it now in her eyes.  'I only thought you might not know I was married,' I said, remembering the wild letter she wrote to me at Limmeridge, and trying to quiet her.  She sighed bitterly, and turned away from me.  'Not know you were married?' she repeated.  'I am here BECAUSE you are married.  I am here to make atonement to you, before I meet your mother in the world beyond the grave.' She drew farther and farther away from me, till she was out of the boat- house, and then she watched and listened for a little while. When she turned round to speak again, instead of coming back, she stopped where she was, looking in at me, with a hand on each side of the entrance. 'Did you see me at the lake last night?' she said. 'Did you hear me following you in the wood? I have been waiting for days together to speak to you alone&mdash;I have left the only friend I have in the world, anxious and frightened about me&mdash; I have risked being shut up again in the mad-house&mdash;and all for your sake, Miss Fairlie, all for your sake.' Her words alarmed me, Marian, and yet there was something in the way she spoke that made me pity her with all my heart. I am sure my pity must have been sincere, for it made me bold enough to ask the poor creature to come in, and sit down in the boat-house, by my side."

"Did she do so?"

"No. She shook her head, and told me she must stop where she was, to watch and listen, and see that no third person surprised us. And from first to last, there she waited at the entrance, with a hand on each side of it, sometimes bending in suddenly to speak to me, sometimes drawing back suddenly to look about her.  'I was here yesterday,' she said, 'before it came dark, and I heard you, and the lady with you, talking together.  I heard you tell her about your husband.