I knew if we lived in a
bigger way there would be calls upon him which he would not otherwise
have had. Calls for subscriptions, for charities, a dozen other claims.
I hated to think that he should have to come to me for money, or that
cheques should be drawn in my name. He asked me what I was going to
give him as a wedding present, and I laughed, and said, `Nothing
interesting. Only a little note!' The settlement was to be my gift."

Silence again. I felt for her hand and held it tight? Tragedy was
coming; I knew it. I waited, tense with suspense.

"We were married very quietly. Only two or three people in the church.
He called for me. It was unconventional, but I was nervous and weak,
and he knew he could give me strength. We went up the aisle together,
hand in hand. The man who was to give me away followed behind. Many
people in America are married in their own homes, but I preferred a
church. I've been sorry since. It has seemed a profanation. To stand
before the altar in God's house and take those solemn vows, while all
the time--all the time--"

She shuddered, and paused to regain self-possession.

"Well, Evelyn--well! I had two weeks' happiness, two weeks in my fool's
paradise, and then--the end came! He had gone over to New York for a
day. Some important business had arisen and he was obliged to go. He
said good-bye." She paused again, struggling for composure. "It _was_
good-bye--good-bye for ever. He did not know that, but he parted from
me as--a husband might from the wife of his heart. It was impossible to
doubt. I was as sure of him, Evelyn--as sure as that the sun is in the
sky!

"After he had gone a letter was handed to me. I did not know the
writing, but inside--I could not understand it--was a letter in his own
writing. Nothing else, just this one sheet, with one long passage
underscored. I did not stop to think; the words leapt at me, my own
name first of all; and after I had begun to read there was no stopping
short. It was the second sheet of a letter, so I could not tell to whom
it had been written; but evidently it was to a man to whom money was
owing, and who had been pressing for a settlement. It was full of
apologies for having failed to pay before; and then--then came the
passage that had been underlined. Perhaps, he said, in a few months'
time things would look up. _There was a girl_. In a roundabout way,
through an English acquaintance, he had heard that