uds pass o'er the moon, and my spirit
Grows dark with the terrors that round it are thrown;
O Surrey, whatever my lot may inherit,
I care not, so suffering but reach me alone."

I do not know that they are good lines--very likely not--but
they burst from the heart and from the lips like a groan or a
sob, and they gave words to what I had felt since I had looked
upon Edward's face, and seen in it, for the first time since
our marriage, not anger, not sternness, but suffering.

I shut the book hastily, and snatched up a newspaper, as I
heard the door of the first drawing-room open.

Henry brought me some flowers which I had left in the
dining-room, and said to me in a low voice, "For Heaven's sake
don't look so miserable! Exert yourself; this will never do."

There are sometimes particular phrases which try one, and jar
upon one's feelings; and this last was of that number. I
darted upon Henry a look of angry reproach, and said in a
hurried manner, "_It will never do_ to be goaded in this way!
I cannot answer for what I may say if you stay here. Your
presence and your advice are insults which drive me mad, and
if you do not go, I feel that I shall lose my head."

As I spoke, I tore the flowers in my hand into pieces, which I
flung one by one into the fire.

"Have mercy upon your bouquet, Mrs. Middleton! You are
beheading those beautiful camellias in the most cruel manner,"
exclaimed Sir Edmund.

"The organ of destructiveness must be strong in you, fair
lady," observed Mr. Escourt, with one of his blandest smiles.

Again an icy chill ran through me; but I hated this man so
intensely, that not even terror could subdue me: and when Sir
Edmund asked me if I had courage to kill an insect, I
answered--"There are insects so loathsome and contemptible,
that to crush them is a pleasure."

I felt that I was making an odious speech; I saw in Edward's
face an expression almost of disgust. I felt that I was
sinking every moment in his opinion; perhaps, losing ground in
his affections. I felt that this was the work of those men
who, one under the cover of a devoted attachment, the other of
playful gallantry, were ruining and exposing me.

A spirit of reckless defiance took possession of me, and I
completely lost my head. A torrent of words burst from my
lips, of which I hardly knew the meaning, as I uttered them. I
said there were crimes worse than murder. I said that to
torture was worse than to kill: to mak