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had more than once the idea of writing to him. She had nev-
er told her husband about him-never let Osmond know of
his visits to her in Florence; a reserve not dictated in the
early period by a want of confidence in Osmond, but simply
by the consideration that the young man’s disappointment
was not her secret but his own. It would be wrong of her, she
had believed, to convey it to another, and Mr. Goodwood’s
affairs could have, after all, little interest for Gilbert. When
it had come to the point she had never written to him; it
seemed to her that, considering his grievance, the least she
could do was to let him alone. Nevertheless she would have
been glad to be in some way nearer to him. It was not that it
ever occurred to her that she might have married him; even
after the consequences of her actual union had grown vivid
to her that particular reflection, though she indulged in so
many, had not had the assurance to present itself. But on
finding herself in trouble he had become a member of that
circle of things with which she wished to set herself right. I
have mentioned how passionately she needed to feel that her
unhappiness should not have come to her through her own
fault. She had no near prospect of dying, and yet she wished
to make her peace with the world-to put her spiritual affairs
in order. It came back to her from time to time that there
was an account still to be settled with Caspar, and she saw
herself disposed or able to settle it to-day on terms easier for
him than ever before. Still, when she learned he was coming
to Rome she felt all afraid; it would be more disagreeable for
him than for any one else to make out-since he would make
it out, as over a falsified balance-sheet or something of that

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