l fret and heartburning, for she
had made no progress in her endeavors to win recognition from the Van
Burnams; and even had had occasion to perceive that her husband's love,
based as it was upon her physical attributes, had begun to feel the
stress of her uneasiness and dissatisfaction. She became more anxious
than ever for social recognition and distinction, and when the family
went to Europe, consented to accompany her husband into the quiet
retreat he thought best calculated to win the approbation of his father,
only upon the assurance of better times in the fall and a possible visit
to Washington in the winter. But the quiet to which she was subjected
had a bad effect upon her. Under it she grew more and more restless, and
as the time approached for the family's return, conceived so many plans
for conciliating them that her husband could not restrain his disgust.
But the worst plan of all and the one which undoubtedly led to her
death, he never knew. This was to surprise Franklin at his office and,
by renewed threats of showing this old love-letter to his brother, win
an absolute promise from him to support her in a fresh endeavor to win
his father's favor. You see she did not understand Silas Van Burnam's
real character, and persisted in holding the most extravagant views
concerning Franklin's ascendancy over him as well as over the rest of
the family. She even went so far as to insist in the interview, which
Jane Pigot overheard, that it was Franklin himself who stood in the way
of her desires, and that if he chose he could obtain for her an
invitation to take up her abode with the rest of them in Gramercy Park.
To Duane Street she therefore went before making her appearance at Mrs.
Parker's; a fact which was not brought out at the inquest; Franklin not
disclosing it of course, and the clerk not recognizing her under the
false name she chose to give. Of the details of this interview I am
ignorant, but as she was closeted with him some time, it is only natural
to suppose that conversation of some importance took place between them.
The clerk who works in the outer office did not, as I have said, know
who she was at the time, but he noticed her face when she came out, and
he declares that it was insolent with triumph, while Mr. Franklin, who
was polite enough or calculating enough to bow her out of the room, was
pale with rage, and acted so unlike himself that everybody observed it.
She held his letter in her hand, a