u: I am as determined to set myself free as you can possibly be to
keep me forever in a state of wretched bondage. If you will consent to
a legal separation, you shall never have occasion to complain of me. I
will double what I have done for you heretofore; yes--I will guarantee
that you shall not lose this part enjoyment of my income even by any
second marriage you may be disposed to enter into. You smile and
pretend to be incredulous. Let us play an honest game. You are young
and beautiful; though I doubt whether you will ever find a man to whom
your heart will go forth. You may easily find a man who will seduce
your senses, and whose position will attract you, and then our account
would be at an end. If you resist this just compromise--"

She looked at him again with all her childish innocence, with that
smiling curiosity as though they had to do with a scene in a farce.

"Well--and then?" she asked.

"Then I will take every means in my power to ruin your life as you have
ruined mine. I will pursue you with my hate, no matter whither you may
flee, and dog your steps, do what you will to hinder! I know how you
live, and that you have neglected no chance to console yourself for the
loss of a husband. I have cast you out of my heart so entirely that I
did not feel the least shade of sorrow when you threw yourself away
upon whomsoever pleased you. But that shall be otherwise now. I will
put a spy on your track, whose only duty shall be to watch you every
step and movement, and to furnish me what I have hitherto lacked:
_proofs_ that you are trampling my honor as well as my happiness under
foot. Then I will openly step before the world and tear the mask from
your smooth face. Then I will--"

"You would do better to spare yourself the trouble," she interrupted,
coldly. "Since you are so good as to warn me, you will easily
understand that, even admitting I should feel any desire to be
indiscreet, I should take care to guard myself against spies. So you
would only throw away your money without gaining anything by it. For
such weak proof of my guilt toward you as a glove, that very likely the
doctor left lying in my chamber, and that an intelligent dog--_a
propos_! I am really sorry that I was the innocent cause of the loss of
your friend, though that keen judge of human nature did show as
unconquerable an aversion toward me as his master. Some other end would
undoubtedly have been preferred by you. At the same time, littl