have been
almost culpably rash and blind,--but I could not look into your
beautiful, sad eyes, and doubt that you were worthy of the love that
sprang up unbidden in my heart. I knew that you were irreligious, but
I believed I could win you back to Christ; and when I tell you that,
after living thirty-eight years, you are the only woman I ever met
whom I wished to call my wife, you can in some degree realize my
confidence in the innate purity of your character. God only knows how
severely I am punished by my rashness, how profoundly I deplore the
strange infatuation that so utterly blinded me. At least, I am
grateful that my brief madness has not involved you in sin and
additional suffering."

The burning spots faded from her cheeks as she listened to his low,
solemn words, and when he ended, she clasped her hands passionately,
and exclaimed,--

"Do not judge me, until you know all. I am not as unworthy as you
fear. Do not withdraw your confidence from me."

He shook his head, and answered, sadly,--

"A wife, yet bereft of your husband's protection! A wife, wandering
among strangers, and a deserter from the home you vowed to cheer! Your
own admission cries out in judgment against you."

He walked to the table and picked up his gloves, and Mrs. Gerome rose
and advanced a few steps.

"Dr. Grey, you will come now and then to see me?"

"No; for the present I do not wish to see you."

"Ah! how brittle are men's promises! Did you not assure Elsie that you
would never forsake her wretched child?"

"Our painful relations invalidate that promise,--cancel that pledge. I
can not visit you as formerly; still, I shall at all times be glad to
serve you; and you have only to acquaint me with your wishes to insure
their execution."

"Remember how solitary, how desolate, I am."

"A wife should be neither, while her husband lives."

The cold severity of his tone wounded her inexpressibly, and she
haughtily drew herself up.

"Dr. Grey will at least allow me an opportunity of explaining the
circumstances that he seems to regard as so heinous?"

He looked at the proud but quivering mouth,--into the great, shadowy,
gray eyes, and a heavy sigh escaped him.

"Perhaps it is better that I should know your history, for it will
diminish my own unhappiness to feel assured that you are worthy of the
estimate I placed upon you one hour ago. Shall I come to-morrow, or
will you tell me now what you desire me to know?"

"I can not s