Frank Derison's letter to Hermia had come as a sort of shock to her, but it was a shock of pleasurable surprise. She had known for some time past that the image of another had usurped in her heart the place she had once believed to be Frank's, but which she had since discovered had never been his in reality. She had mistaken liking for love, as she had not been long in finding out when once the real and not the sham Eros had aimed one of his shafts at her; and a growing certainty had taken possession of her that if, at the end of the twelve months, Frank should press her to make the bond between them "a nearer one still and a dearer one," there would be no response to his wish in her heart. How foolish she had been! How severely she blamed herself, now that her eyes were opened, for having ever dreamed that she really loved him! It would be painful, very painful, to have to confess her mistake, but if he were to press his suit no other course would be open to her. The twelve months which were to bring the secret engagement to an end in one form or another had terminated during the time of John's imprisonment. At a season of such deep trouble all thoughts of love and matrimony were out of the question, but the moment John's acquittal was an assured fact Hermia began to dread that which might come to pass at any moment. The infrequency and shortness of Frank's visits to the Cottage during the time of John's absence, and the impossibility of not seeing how forced was the sympathy displayed by him on those occasions, had tended still more to open Hermia's eyes; as a consequence of which, when Frank's letter came to hand its contents filled her with a sense of glad relief. She could not refrain from kissing the letter, so unfeigned was her joy at the news it brought her. There was nothing now to hinder her from loving as much as she liked, even though her love should never be returned, nor he who was the secret object of it so much as suspect its existence. Just now she asked for nothing beyond that--to love in secret as much as she liked.