eadfully pale, and his eyes
glared with the combined fires of jealousy and rage. Intense excitement
caused him to quiver in every limb. In one hand he grasped a pistol, and
in the other a bowie knife of the largest and most formidable kind.

It was but too evident that my fears had been well founded, and that Mr.
Romaine had discovered the intimacy between Anderson and his wife.

The reader will agree with me that the "injured husband" was equally
culpable on account of his intrigue with the young and handsome widow,
Mrs. Raymond.--How prone are many people to lose sight of their own
imperfections while they censure and severely punish the failings of
those who are not a whit more guilty than themselves! The swinish
glutton condemns the drunkard--the villainous seducer reproves the
frequenter of brothels--the arch hypocrite takes to task the open,
undisguised sinner--and the rich, miserly old reprobate, whose wealth
places him above the possibility of ever coming to want, who would
sooner "hang the guiltless than eat his mutton cold," and who would not
bestow a cent upon a poor devil to keep him from starving--that old
rascal, perhaps, in his capacity as a magistrate, sentences to jail an
unfortunate man whom hunger has driven into the "crime" of stealing a
loaf of bread! Bah! ladies and gentlemen, take the _beams_ out of your
own eyes before you allude to the _motes_ in the optics of your fellow
beings. That's _my_ advice, free of charge.

On seeing her husband enter in that furious and threatening manner, Mrs.
Romaine, overcome with fear and shame--for she well knew that her guilt
had been detected--fell to the floor insensible. Anderson, confused and
not knowing what to say, sat motionless as a statue;--while I awaited,
with almost trembling anxiety, the issue of this most extraordinary
state of affairs.

Romaine was the first to break the silence, and he spoke in a tone of
voice that was singularly calm considering his physical agitation.

"Well, sir," said he, addressing Anderson--"you are enjoying yourself
finely--drinking my wine, devouring my provisions, and making love to my
wife in her own bed-chamber. Anderson, for some time past I have
suspected you and Harriet of being guilty of criminal intimacy. I have
noticed your secret signs, and have read and interpreted the language of
your eyes, whenever you and she have exchanged glances in my presence.
You both took me to be a weak fool, too blind and imbecile