have done.'

"With that preface I entered on my story, telling him what I had settled
to tell him, and no more.

"I made no secret, at the outset, of my intention to personate
Armadale's widow; and I mentioned without reserve (knowing that the
doctor could go to the office and examine the will for himself) the
handsome income that would be settled on me in the event of my success.
Some of the circumstances that followed next in succession I thought it
desirable to alter or conceal. I showed him the newspaper account of the
loss of the yacht, but I said nothing about events at Naples. I informed
him of the exact similarity of the two names; leaving him to imagine
that it was accidental. I told him, as an important element in the
matter, that my husband had kept his real name a profound secret from
everybody but myself; but (to prevent any communication between them)
I carefully concealed from the doctor what the assumed name under which
Midwinter had lived all his life really was. I acknowledged that I had
left my husband behind me on the Continent; but when the doctor put the
question, I allowed him to conclude--I couldn't, with all my resolution,
tell him positively!--that Midwinter knew of the contemplated Fraud, and
that he was staying away purposely, so as not to compromise me by his
presence. This difficulty smoothed over--or, as I feel it now, this
baseness committed--I reverted to myself, and came back again to the
truth. One after another I mentioned all the circumstances connected
with my private marriage, and with the movements of Armadale and
Midwinter, which rendered any discovery of the false personation
(through the evidence of other people) a downright impossibility. 'So
much,' I said, in conclusion, 'for the object in view. The next thing is
to tell you plainly of a very serious obstacle that stands in my way.'

"The doctor, who had listened thus far without interrupting me, begged
permission here to say a few words on his side before I went on.

"The 'few words' proved to be all questions--clever, searching,
suspicious questions--which I was, however, able to answer with little
or no reserve, for they related, in almost every instance, to the
circumstances under which I had been married, and to the chances for and
against my lawful husband if he chose to assert his claim to me at any
future time.

"My replies informed the doctor, in the first place, that I had so
managed matters at Thorpe Ambrose a