seized her with his hard hand to push her away from the door.
    What had she said in her distraction? She had broken away from him, and
repudiated her wifehood. Was it not well done? If he believed her unfaithful to
him -
    At an earlier period of her married life such a charge would have held her
mute with horror. Its effect now was not quite the same; she could face the
thought, interrogate herself as to its meaning, with a shudder, indeed, but a
shudder which came of fear as well as loathing. Life was no longer an untried
country, its difficulties and perils to be met with the sole aid of a few
instincts and a few maxims; she had sounded the depths of misery and was
invested with the woeful knowledge of what we poor mortals call the facts of
existence. And sitting here, as on the desert bed of a river whose water had of
a sudden ceased to flow, she could regard her own relation to truths, however
desolating, with the mind which had rather brave all than any longer seek to
deceive itself.
    Of that which he imputed to her she was incapable; that such suspicion of
her could enter his mind branded him with baseness. But his jealousy was
justified; howsoever it had awakened in him, it was sustained by truth. Was it
her duty to tell him that, and so to render it impossible for him to seek to
detain her?
    But would the confession have any such result? Did he not already believe
her criminal, and yet forbid her to leave him? On what terms did she stand with
a man whose thought was devoid of delicacy, who had again and again proved
himself without understanding of the principles of honour? And could she indeed
make an admission which would compel her at the same time to guard against
revolting misconceptions?
    The question of how he had obtained this knowledge recurred to her. It was
evident that the spy had intentionally calumniated her, professing to have heard
her speak incriminating words. She thought of Rodman. He had troubled her by his
private request that she would appeal to Eldon on Alice's behalf, a request
which was almost an insult. Could he have been led to make it in consequence of
his being aware of that meeting in the wood? That might well be; she distrusted
him and believed him capable even of a dastardly revenge.
    What was the troublesome thought that hung darkly in her mind and would not
come to consciousness? She held it at last; Mutimer had said that he met Hubert
in the street below. How to explain that?