le, and charged me
with setting fire to it. I smiled at her, but made no reply.

"So you see she was burned out, and that question was settled. It was
a terrible thing, but desperate diseases require desperate remedies;
and I felt it more tolerable to have the house in ruins than to have
her living there while I had to be a wanderer.

"She was now at my mercy. We went to Exeter. She went to her father,
and I finally succeeded in effecting an arrangement which was
satisfactory on all sides.

"First of all, the separation should be absolute, and neither of us
should ever hold communication with the other in any shape or way.

"Secondly, she should take another name, so as to conceal the fact
that she was my wife, and not do any further dishonor to the name.

"In return for this I was to give her outright twenty thousand pounds
as her own absolutely, to invest or spend just as she chose. She
insisted on this, so that she need not be dependent on any annual
allowance. In consideration of this she forfeited every other claim,
all dower right in the event of my death, and every thing else. This
was all drawn up in a formal document, and worded as carefully as
possible. I don't believe that the document would be of much use in a
court of law in case she wished to claim any of her rights, but it
served to satisfy her, and she thought it was legally sound and
actually inviolable.

"Here we separated. I left England, and have never been there since."

Dacres stopped, and sat silent for a long time.

"Could she have been mad?" asked Hawbury.

"I used to think so, but I believe not. She showed too much sense in
every thing relating to herself. She sold pictures and timber, and
kept every penny. She was acute enough in grasping all she could.
During our last interviews while making these arrangements she was
perfectly cool and lady-like."

"Have you ever heard about her since?"

"Never."

"Is she alive yet?"

"That's the bother."

"What! don't you know?"

"No."

"Haven't you ever tried to find out?"

"Yes. Two years ago I went and had inquiries made at Exeter. Nothing
could be found out. She and her father had left the place immediately
after my departure, and nothing was known about them."

"I wonder that you didn't go yourself?"

"What for? I didn't care about seeing her or finding her."

"Do you think she's alive yet?"

"I'm afraid she is. You see she always had excellent health, and
there's no reason