"No."

Edith now said nothing for a long time; and as she sat there, buried in
her own miserable thoughts, Mrs. Dunbar looked at her with a face full
of sad and earnest sympathy--a face which had a certain longing, wistful
expression, as though she yearned over this stricken heart, and longed
to offer some consolation. But Edith, even if she had been willing to
receive any expressions of sympathy from one like Mrs. Dunbar, whom she
regarded as a miserable tool of her oppressor, or a base ally, was too
far down in the depths of her own profound affliction to be capable of
consolation. Bad enough it was already, when she had to look back over
so long a course of deceit and betrayal at the hands of one whom she had
regarded as her best friend; but now to find that all this treachery had
culminated in a horror like this, that she was claimed and proclaimed by
an outrageous villain as his wife--this was beyond all endurance. The
blackness of that perfidy, and the terror of her memories, which till
now had wrung her heart, fled away, and gave place to the most
passionate indignation.

And now, at the impulse of these more fervid feelings, her whole
outraged nature underwent a change. Till now she had felt most strongly
the emotions of grief and melancholy; now, however, these passed away,
and were succeeded by an intensity of hate, a vehemence of wrath, and a
hot glow of indignant passion that swept away all other feelings. All
the pride of her haughty spirit was roused; her soul became instinct
with a desperate resolve; and mingling with these feelings there was a
scorn for her enemies as beings of a baser nature, and a stubborn
determination to fight them all till the bitter end.

All this change was manifest in her look and tone as she again addressed