annoyed at never being able to see her alone.

As before, they were at cards together in the library, and Edith went
for a moment into the parlor to get something. With the excuse of
obtaining it for her, Mr. Fox followed, and the moment they were alone
he seized her hand and pressed a kiss upon it. An angry flush came
into her face, but by a great effort she so far controlled herself as
to put her finger to her lips and point to the library, as if her
chief anxiety was that the attention of its occupants should not be
excited. Mr. Fox was delighted, though the angry flush was a little
puzzling. But if Edith permitted that she would permit more, and if
her only shrinking was lest others should see and know at present,
that could soon be overcome. These thoughts passed through his mind
while the incensed girl hastily obtained what she wished. But she,
feeling that her cheeks were too hot to return immediately to the
critical eyes in the library, passed out through the front parlor,
that she might have time to be herself again when she appeared. On
what little links destiny sometimes hangs!

That which changed all her future and that of others--that involving
life and death--occurred in the half moment occupied in her passing
out of the front parlor. The consequences she would feel most keenly,
terribly indeed at times, though she might never guess the cause. Her
act was a simple, natural one under the circumstances, and yet it told
Mr. Fox, in his cat-like watchfulness, that with all his cunning he
was being made a fool of. The moment Edith had passed around the
sliding door and thought herself unobserved, an expression of intense
disgust came out upon her expressive face, and with her lace
handkerchief she rubbed the hand he had kissed, as if removing the
slime of a reptile; and the large mirror at the further end of the