Naturally there was a restraint between him and Mrs. Gaunt; and only short sentences passed between them. He saw the peacemaker off, and then wandered all over the premises, and the past came nearer, and the present seemed to retire into the background. He wandered about like one in a dream; and was so self-absorbed, that he did not see Mrs. Gaunt coming towards him with observant eyes. She met him full; he started like a guilty thing. "Are you afraid of me?" said she, sweetly. "No, my dear, not exactly; and yet I am: afraid, or ashamed, or both." "You need not. I said I forgive you; and you know I am not one that does things by halves." "You are an angel!" said he, warmly; "but (suddenly relapsing into despondency) we shall never be happy together again." She sighed. "Say not so. Time and sweet recollections may heal even this wound by degrees." "God grant it," said he, despairingly. "And, though we can't be lovers again all at once, we may be friends; to begin, tell me, what have you on your mind? Come, make a friend of me." He looked at her in alarm. She smiled. "Shall I guess?" said she. "You will never guess," said he; "and I shall never have the heart to tell you." "Let me try. Well, I think you have run in debt, and are afraid to ask me for the money." Griffith was greatly relieved by this conjecture; he drew a long breath: and, after a pause, said, cunningly, "What made you think that?" "Because you came here for money, and not for happiness. You told me so in the Grove." "That is true. What a sordid wretch you must think me?" "No, because you were under a delusion. But I do believe you are just the man to turn reckless, when you thought me false, and go drinking and dicing." She added, eagerly, "I do not suspect you of anything worse." He assured her that was not the way of it. "Then tell me the way of it. You must not think, because I pester you not with questions, I have no curiosity. Oh, how often have I longed to be a bird, and watch you day and night unseen. How would you have liked that? I wish you had been one, to watch me. Ah, you don't answer. Could you have borne so close an inspection, sir?" Griffith shuddered at the idea; and his eyes fell before the full grey orbs of his wife. "Well, never mind," said she, "tell me your story." "Well, then, when I left you I was raving mad." "That is true, I'll be sworn." "I let my horse go; and he took me near a hundred miles from here, and stopped at--at--a farmhouse. The good people took me in." "God bless them for it. I'll ride and thank them." "Nay, nay; 'tis too far. There I fell sick of a fever, a brain-fever: the doctor blooded me." "Alas! would he had taken mine instead." "And I lost my wits for several days; and when I came back I was weak as water, and given up by the doctor: and the first thing I saw, was an old hag set a making of my shroud."