I like to think that in you he possesses
the greatest blessing that my grateful tenderness could desire
for him.

"I wish I could feel happy about Henry and Alice; I had hoped
that the birth of their child would have made him more
domestic, and drawn them more closely together; but, except a
few hurried lines in which he announced the fact to me, and
another short letter since, I have heard nothing from him; and
I have received a strange one from her grandmother. She
insists upon seeing me immediately on my return to England,
and speaks of communicating some dreadful secret to me. If I
did not think her mad, this would frighten me; but her
language and conduct ever since the marriage have been so
strange, that I suspect she must be out of her mind. I shall
go to Henry's house at once on my arrival to-morrow; and by
the middle of the day I hope to be once more with you, my
beloved and precious child. The past is sad, the future is
gloomy; I have many fears and disquietudes; but _you_ are my
light in darkness, my bird of peace amid the storms of life;
and in your happiness I shall forget my own sorrows. Give my
best love to dearest Edward.

"Ever your most affectionate,

"M. M."

The cup was full at last; I was drinking it to the dregs; what
wonder if it turned my brain? Banished for ever by
Edward--persecuted by Henry's fatal passion--denounced to Mrs.
Middleton--accused of murder--what was I doing here? Could I
not walk out, and, in the black cold depths of the river,
still for ever the passionate beating of that heart which had
throbbed so long? Could I not swallow poison; and, in the
agonies of deaths send for Edward?

Death! No; I dared not die! I was afraid to die: but I would
seek a living grave. I would fly from the face of those who
loved, and of those who hated me.

Edward had forbidden my name to be uttered before him. Never
again should it be uttered as the name of a living creature. I
would take another, and bury myself in a seclusion where I
might linger through the increasing symptoms of that illness
which, during the last few days, I had detected and recognised
by the hectic spots on my cheeks, by a racking cough, and
nightly sweats. There I should live alone, suffer alone, and
die alone; and when the record of my death, if recorded at
all, should casually meet the eyes of those who once loved me,
it would pass unnoticed; and my own name, my fatal name, if
ever pronounced by them, would soun