I answered her warmly and gratefully, as I really felt. But the anxious look remained on her face while I was speaking, and the first question she asked, when I had done, related to Count Fosco.

I saw that she was thinking of him now with a changed mind. No fresh outbreak of anger against him, no new appeal to me to hasten the day of reckoning escaped her. Her conviction that the man's hateful admiration of herself was really sincere, seemed to have increased a hundredfold her distrust of his unfathomable cunning, her inborn dread of the wicked energy and vigilance of all his faculties. Her voice fell low, her manner was hesitating, her eyes searched into mine with an eager fear when she asked me what I thought of his message, and what I meant to do next after hearing it.

`Not many weeks have passed, Marian,' I answered, `since my interview with Mr Kyrle. When he and I parted, the last words I said to him about Laura were these: ``Her uncle's house shall open to receive her, in the presence of every soul who followed the false funeral to the grave; the lie that records her death shall be publicly erased from the tombstone by the authority of the head of the family, and the two men who have wronged her shall answer for their crime to ME, though the justice that sits in tribunals is powerless to pursue them.'' One of those men is beyond mortal reach. The other remains, and my resolution remains.'

Her eyes lit up -- her colour rose. She said nothing, but I saw all her sympathies gathering to mine in her face.

`I don't disguise from myself, or from you,' I went on, `that the prospect before us is more than doubtful. The risks we have run already are, it may be, trifles compared with the risks that threaten us in the future, but the venture shall be tried, Marian, for all that. I am not rash enough to measure myself against such a man as the Count before I am well prepared for him. I have learnt patience -- I can wait my time. Let him believe that his message has produced its effect -- let him know nothing of us, and hear nothing of us -- let us give him full time to feel secure -- his own boastful nature, unless I seriously mistake him, will hasten that result. This is one reason for waiting, but there is another more important still. My position, Marian, towards you and towards Laura ought to be a stronger one than it is now before I try our last chance.'

She leaned near to me, with a look of surprise.

`How can it be stronger?' she asked.

`I will tell you,' I replied, `when the time comes. It has not come yet -- it may never come at all. I may be silent about it to Laura for ever -- I must be silent now, even to you, till I see for myself that I can harmlessly and honourably speak. Let us leave that subject. There is another which has more pressing claims on our attention. You have kept Laura, mercifully kept her, in ignorance of her husband's death --'

`Oh, Walter, surely it must be long yet before we tell her of it?'

`No, Marian. Better that you should reveal it to her now, than that accident, which no one can guard against, should reveal it to her at some future time. Spare her all the details -- break it to her very tenderly, but tell her that he is dead.'

`You have a reason, Walter, for wishing her to know of her husband's death besides the reason you have just mentioned?'

`I have.'

`A reason connected with that subject which must not be mentioned between us yet? -- which may never be mentioned to Laura at all?'

She dwelt on the last words meaningly. When I answered her in the affirmative, I dwelt on them too.