MILDRED. By all you love, sweet Guendolen, forbear! Have I confided in you... GUENDOLEN. Just for this! Austin!--Oh, not to guess it at the first! But I did guess it--that is, I divined, Felt by an instinct how it was: why else Should I pronounce you free from all that heap Of sins which had been irredeemable? I felt they were not yours--what other way Than this, not yours? The secret's wholly mine! MILDRED. If you would see me die before his face... GUENDOLEN. I'd hold my peace! And if the Earl returns To-night? MILDRED. Ah Heaven, he's lost! GUENDOLEN. I thought so. Austin! Enter AUSTIN Oh, where have you been hiding? AUSTIN. Thorold's gone, I know not how, across the meadow-land. I watched him till I lost him in the skirts O' the beech-wood. GUENDOLEN. Gone? All thwarts us. MILDRED. Thorold too? GUENDOLEN. I have thought. First lead this Mildred to her room. Go on the other side; and then we'll seek Your brother: and I'll tell you, by the way, The greatest comfort in the world. You said There was a clue to all. Remember, Sweet, He said there was a clue! I hold it. Come! ACT III SCENE I.--The end of the Yew-tree Avenue under MILDRED'S Window. A light seen through a central red pane Enter TRESHAM through the trees