letting that blackguard Grey make love to you! You kissed him in the East
wood this afternoon!"

The mysterious smile faded from the face of Olivia, and an expression of
the most natural astonishment took its place.

"I sometimes think that you are quite mad, Egbert," she said in her slow,
musical voice.

Elizabeth Twitcher continued her deft manipulation of a thick strand of
hair without any change in her sullen and depressed air. To all seeming,
she was uninterested, or deaf.

Lord Loudwater had expected, in the face of Olivia's gentleness, to have
to work himself up to a proper height of indignant fury by degrees. The
echo of Grey's accusation from the mouth of his wife raised him to it on
the instant and without an effort.

"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed. "It's no good whatever! I tell
you, I know!"

Olivia was surprised to find herself wholly free from her old fear of
him. The fact that she was in love with Grey and he with her had already
worked a change in her. These were the only things in the world of any
real importance. That clear knowledge gave her a new confidence and a new
strength. Her husband had been able to frighten her nearly out of her
wits. Now he could not; and she could use them.

"I'm not lying at all. I really do believe you're mad--often," she said
very distinctly.