n. There was no Jane Liston. That was the
name under which I was first introduced into Mr. Darcy's house, by which
I had been known to the few of Mr. Darcy's friends whom I met, and, to
save endless inquiries, it was the name published from first to last.
Mr. Darcy knew all my story, knew all about me. But you, Mr. Gilbert--it
is very late in the day to ask your forgiveness for the great wrong I
did you four years ago, but from my heart I do ask it."

She clasped her hands together with the old gesture--the dusky eyes
filled and brimmed over. But if the familiar gesture moved him, if the
tears touched him, Richard Gilbert did not show it.

"I forgave you long ago, Mrs. Darcy," he said, very coldly: "pray do not
think of me at all, and accept my congratulations upon your great
accession of fortune."

Her head dropped, her cheeks flushed. Those three years had changed her
into a beautiful, self-possessed, calm-eyed woman; but her faltering
voice, her drooping head, her downcast eyes were very humble now.

"I did wrong--wrong too great for forgiveness; but if suffering can
atone for sin, then surely I have atoned. Let me tell you the story of
that bitter time. It is your due, and mine."

He bent his head. With lips compressed and eyes fixed upon the desk
before him, he listened while she faltered forth her confession.

"I had no thought of going that night when I left the house. Oh! believe
this if you can, Mr. Gilbert--no thought, as Heaven hears me, of flying
with him. I was in the carriage and far away, it seems to me, before I
realized it; and then--listening to his false words and promises--it
seemed too late to turn back, and I went on."

She told him the story of the after-time--of all--truthfully and
earnestly, up to the night of her confession to Mr. Darcy.

"He was like a man beside himself with fury," she said. "Liston came to
indorse my words and tell the story of Lucy West. Then he swore a mighty
oath that he would never look upon Laurence Thorndyke's face again. So,
without a word, we went away--he and I, and Liston. No father could be
kinder, no friend truer. I believe the blow hastened his end. We went to
France, to Italy. All the time he was failing. When he knew he must die,
he told me what he intended--he would make me his daughter legally and
leave me all.

"Mr. Gilbert, I had vowed within myself to be revenged upon Laurence
Thorndyke sooner or later. This was the beginning of my revenge. He
m