was now completely at his mercy. I had always been lavish
of my means, for whatever faults I may have preserved, avarice and
parsimony were not of their number. I learned now that I had committed a
very foolish act. I had nothing with which to help myself, and was
completely under his control.

"Suddenly, at a great commercial crisis, everything was swept from us.
'We are now,' said my husband, 'for the first time on an equal footing.
The fortune, which you brought me, has been lost from no carelessness
upon my part. We are engulfed in one common ruin with others who have
before stood steadfast through similar trials. We shall both suffer in
common, for I have lost that for which I sacrificed myself, and have now
nothing to console me. I presume you have learned that fact before this,
Mrs. Westbourne, and know that I married you for the glittering prize
which has just slipped from my grasp.'

"'Oh! Geoffrey,' I exclaimed, 'do not be so cruel.'

"'You call it cruelty,' he replied, 'but I say it is a terrible fact. I
never cared for but but one woman on earth, and I broke her heart when I
told her that I had forever placed a barrier between us by my own _act_.
She died soon after our marriage.'

"'Why have I not known of this before?' I asked. 'Why tell me after so
long a time, when there can be no reparation for the crime? It was a
double wrong you committed when you broke one woman's heart and made
another's whole life desolate. I never dreamed you cared for another.'

"'There I had the advantage of you, my dear,' he said coolly. 'I knew
you were a little too fond of young Angier for my interest. If I had
cared enough about you I should have been furiously jealous, but merely
having an eye to the pecuniary advantage, I let the little dream go on
until I was pleased to put an end to it. Could I have forseen this hour
I would have acted far differently.'

"A week after he came in with a face pale with excitement. 'Such
glorious news,' he exclaimed. 'By the luckiest train of accidents I have
come into possession of a clear hundred thousand, and I don't think I
shall very deeply deplore the demise of the venerable individual who
departed this life just at the right moment.'

"I was nearly happy at this announcement. I thought now I could rely on
his magnanimity. I reflected that I had bestowed everything upon him in
my prosperity, and I hoped that now he would, at least, be more
considerate of my feelings.

"But I