old eyes regarded me with
a fixed, relentless gaze. 'No, I do not. Here, with none to overhear
us, I will tell you truly that I do not believe you guilty of this crime
which I am about to charge against you, and to prove before the world.
You were a spoiled, capricious beauty when I met with you, and I, merely
a fortune hunter. Our marriage was a fatal mistake. But you have
discharged your duties faithfully, and I know it will be a satisfaction
in the future to have this to reflect upon.

"'Do not think, though, that you can swerve me from my purpose. We are
best apart. Your life will pass quietly and happily in some grateful
retreat, all the happier for this storm that now threatens your peace.
You will have nothing to regret. The world will make the most of the
nine day's wonder, and then it will be forgotten. As for me my lot is
chosen. Wealth and power are essential to my happiness. I must be looked
up to as a person of position and influence, and I prefer to be feared
rather than loved. The wealth I shall gain with the hand of this woman,
whom fate has destined to be your successor, will place me upon the very
pinnacle of prosperity. It is a temptation too strong to be resisted.'

"'Of course you, as the victim, will cry out against the cruelty of the
act, but it will be of no avail. I grant that I am doing you an
injustice, and you will assail me with tears and entreaties, but, when
my stoical indifference renders them useless, you will threaten me with
future retribution, and cry out that God will never permit such
injustice; but I shall not pause, nor relent. I am no better, nor yet
worse, than others. Here, in a Christian community, deeds similar to
mine are perpetrated every day, and strong-handed _might_, reeking with
crime, flaunts its purple and fine linen in the high places of the
earth, while persecuted and down-trodden innocence creeps away to hide
its sorrows in the grave. It is the way of the world, and I choose to
follow no other leader.'

"'But the child, Geoffrey,' I gasped, 'my precious child; only let me
take her with me, give me her company in my exile, and I will do all you
would have me.'

"'No,' he insisted, sternly. 'She is my daughter, and I prefer to have
her brought up under my own immediate supervision. I wish to make a lady
of Miss Westbourne, and I do not consider you a proper person to be
entrusted with the charge.'

"'And you would rob a mother of her only child? God has forgotte