nd
now that her hate was expended she would grow gentle and good.

"But I knew the worthlessness of this hope as well as my misconception
of her motive, when Frank's child by another wife returned to my memory,
and Bella's sin stood exposed."

"But only to myself. I alone knew that the fortune now wholly hers, and
in consequence her boy's, had been won by a crime. That if her hand had
fallen in comfort on her husband's forehead instead of in pressure on
his mouth, he would have outlived his brother long enough to have become
owner of his millions; in which case a rightful portion would have been
insured to his daughter, now left a penniless waif. The thought made my
hair rise, as the proceedings over, I faced her and made my first and
last effort to rid my conscience of its new and intolerable burden.

"But the woman I had known and loved was no longer before me. The crown
had touched her brows, and her charm which had been mainly sexual up to
this hour had merged into an intellectual force, with which few men's
mentality could cope. Mine yielded at once to it. From the first
instant, I knew that a slavery of spirit, as well as of heart, was
henceforth to be mine.

"She did not wait for me to speak; she had assumed the dictator's
attitude at once.

"'I know of what you are thinking,"' said she, 'and it is a subject you
may dismiss at once from your mind. Mr. Postlethwaite's child by his
first wife is coming to live with us. I have expressed my wishes in this
regard to my lawyer, and there is nothing left to be said. You, with
your close mouth and dependable nature, are to remain here as before,
and occupy the same position towards my boy that you did towards his
father. We shall move soon into a larger house, and the nature of our
duties will be changed and their scope greatly increased; but I know
that you can be trusted to enlarge with them and meet every requirement
I shall see fit to make. Do not try to express your thanks. I see them
in your face.'

"Did she, or just the last feeble struggle my conscience was making to
break the bonds in which she held me, and win back my own respect? I
shall never know, for she left me on completion of this speech, not to
resume the subject, then or ever.

"But though I succumbed outwardly to her demands, I had not passed the
point where inner conflict ends and peace begins. Her recognition of
Helena and her reception into the family calmed me for a while, and gave
me hop