one, _if I can count on Allan Armadale's death in a given time_.

"All but his death is easy. The whole series of events under which I
have been blindly chafing and fretting for more than a week past have
been, one and all--though I was too stupid to see it--events in my
favor; events paving the way smoothly and more smoothly straight to the
end.

"In three bold steps--only three!--that end might be reached. Let
Midwinter marry me privately, under his real name--step the first! Let
Armadale leave Thorpe Ambrose a single man, and die in some distant
place among strangers--step the second!

"Why am I hesitating? Why not go on to step the third, and last?

"I _will_ go on. Step the third, and last, is my appearance, after the
announcement of Armadale's death has reached this neighborhood, in the
character of Armadale's widow, with my marriage certificate in my hand
to prove my claim. It is as clear as the sun at noonday. Thanks to the
exact similarity between the two names, and thanks to the careful manner
in which the secret of that similarity has been kept, I may be the wife
of the dark Allan Armadale, known as such to nobody but my husband and
myself; and I may, out of that very position, claim the character of
widow of the light Allan Armadale, with proof to support me (in the
shape of my marriage certificate) which would be proof in the estimation
of the most incredulous person living.

"To think of my having put all this in my Diary! To think of my having
actually contemplated this very situation, and having seen nothing
more in it, at the time, than a reason (if I married Midwinter) for
consenting to appear in the world under my husband's assumed name!

"What is it daunts me? The dread of obstacles? The fear of discovery?

"Where are the obstacles? Where is the fear of discovery?

"I am actually suspected all over the neighborhood of intriguing to be
mistress of Thorpe Ambrose. I am the only person who knows the real turn
that Armadale's inclinations have taken. Not a creature but myself is
as yet aware of his early morning meetings with Miss Milroy. If it is
necessary to part them, I can do it at any moment by an anonymous line
to the major. If it is necessary to remove Armadale from Thorpe Ambrose,
I can get him away at three days' notice. His own lips informed me, when
I last spoke to him, that he would go to the ends of the earth to be
friends again with Midwinter, if Midwinter would let him. I have only