Access Online - The European Library

"CRUEL AS THE GRAVE." 195back to London,Iwill think about it," he haclsaid, and she clung to the hope, to the half promisein the words. He was surely settling affairsso as to enable him to avoid the bursting of thestorm. Tlie tacit estrangement between themwould account for his doing this silently; his viletemper, which Harriet thoroughly understood, andnever failed to recognise in action, would accountfor his denying her the relief of knowing his intentions.Many small things in his daily- life,which didnot escape the quickened perception ofhis wife,betokened a state of preparation for somedecided course of action. The time of explanationmust necessarily come; meanwhile, she watched,ancl waited, ancl suffered.How she suffered in every hour of her life!Yet there was a kind of dulness over Harriet too.She recurred little to the past inpoint of feeling;she thought overit, indeed, in aid of the action ofher reasonand her will, but she did not recall ityvith the keenness either of acute grief for itsvanished happiness, such as it had been, or ofremorse and terror for its deep and desperateguilt.The burden of the day was enough now