nd I was so tired of myself. I went to
my boxes next. I looked over the large box first, which I usually leave
open; and then I tried the small box, which I always keep locked.

"From one thing to the other, I came at last to the bundle of letters
at the bottom--the letters of the man for whom I once sacrificed and
suffered everything; the man who has made me what I am.

"A hundred times I had determined to burn his letters; but I have never
burned them. This, time, all I said was, 'I won't read his letters!' And
I did read them.

"The villain--the false, cowardly, heartless villain--what have I to do
with his letters now? Oh, the misery of being a woman! Oh, the meanness
that our memory of a man can tempt us to, when our love for him is dead
and gone! I read the letters--I was so lonely and so miserable, I read
the letters.

"I came to the last--the letter he wrote to encourage me, when I
hesitated as the terrible time came nearer and nearer; the letter that
revived me when my resolution failed at the eleventh hour. I read on,
line after line, till I came to these words:

"'...I really have no patience with such absurdities as you have written
to me. You say I am driving you on to do what is beyond a woman's
courage. Am I? I might refer you to any collection of Trials, English or
foreign, to show that you were utterly wrong. But such collections may
be beyond your reach; and I will only refer you to a case in
yesterday's newspaper. The circumstances are totally different from our
circumstances; but the example of resolution in a woman is an example
worth your notice.

"'You will find, among the law reports, a married woman charged with
fraudulently representing herself to be the missing widow of an officer
in the merchant service, who was supposed to have been drowned. The name
of the prisoner's husband (living) and the name of the officer (a very
common one, both as to Christian and surname) happened to be identically
the same. There was money to be got by it (sorely wanted by the
prisoner's husband, to whom she was devotedly attached), if the fraud
had succeeded. The woman took it all on herself. Her husband was
helpless and ill, and the bailiffs were after him. The circumstances,
as you may read for yourself, were all in her favor, and were so well
managed by her that the lawyers themselves acknowledged she might have
succeeded, if the supposed drowned man had not turned up alive and
well in the nick of time