“You shall not leave me in anger. I have been over-credulous, I know; yet make some excuses for me. Remember how I saw you: veiled deeply, and evidently in much agitation, earnestly seeking an interview with a young and handsome man, notorious for his gallantry. Can you wonder that, seeing you thus, I was only too ready to believe what I was told?” Florence flung herself upon his breast with a bitter cry. “No--no; I do not wonder that you thought the worst of me! Neither do you blame me that I keep to my vow even though our separation rends my heart. Your wife, my Frank, must be above suspicion. I could not be happy if I were yours. The slightest cloud on your brow, the slightest change in your voice, would fill me with dread that your suspicions were returning. Ah, Frank, I cannot--dare not give you my hand until no shadow of so fearful an estrangement can come between us.” For a moment her lips were pressed to his; and then, resisting all further efforts to detain her, Florence tore herself from his embrace. CHAPTER XXIII. CONCLUSION. Mrs. Blunden was not at all surprised to be told that her niece had gone to her room, pleading excessive fatigue as an excuse for not appearing at the dinner table. But she was greatly concerned when, in consequence of the agitation she had undergone and a night spent in weeping, Florence became seriously ill. She could not conceal from her aunt that something had happened to cause this; nor did Mrs. Blunden rest until she was put in possession of all the circumstances. Like all hasty-tempered people, she scarcely waited to hear the end before she began to complain loudly of the little confidence that Florence had reposed in her; nor could she be made to understand why her niece had concealed the secret uneasiness Mr. Aylwinne’s mysterious allusions had frequently occasioned her. Finding the suffering girl incapable of answering her reproaches, she then turned the torrent of her wrath upon Mr. Aylwinne, declaring his credulity in suspecting a Heriton of allying herself clandestinely with a man of Lieutenant Mason’s character to be quite unpardonable. Too much harassed by the condition of Florence to attach much weight to anything Mrs. Blunden could say, he permitted her to scold and storm unchecked. He would wait, he said, till Florence was better and able to listen calmly to his reasoning. She, at least, would acquit him of knowingly wronging her. This opportunity, however, Mrs. Blunden did not intend him to have. Always rash and hot-headed, she determined to seize on the opportunity of his riding to the nearest town for further advice, to remove her niece, and take her by express train to London. But the angry lady’s exordiums and violent anger against her betrothed had made Florence so much worse that she became delirious; and her alarmed aunt soon showed herself as eager to implore Mr. Aylwinne’s advice and sympathy as she had been to repudiate it.