temptible part I had acted; how I then
understood the sorrow of her life; how I would have crushed out my love
and given her to Frank, had there been any practicable way; how, knowing
that the only chance for happiness to both was in mutual love, I had
determined to gain hers by every act of devotion; how I sought to give
her the only relation to Frank she could properly bear--his
benefactress. I told her of my secret studies, designed to fit me for
companionship with her; of my withdrawing with her into the wilderness,
that her grief might be alleviated in the inspiring presence of
uncontaminated nature; of my expenditures to gratify her wishes and
tastes. I narrated the incidents which preceded the duel, and informed
her that I was perfectly acquainted with Sefton's object in seeking an
encounter with me; that I gratified him because willing to undertake
every hazard for her sake. Finally, I avowed my knowledge of all the
disappointment her heart had experienced by Frank's inconstancy.' know
you feel, to-night,' I said, 'that existence is an imposture--worse than
the meanest jiggle. So do I. The only thing that can render it a reality
is love. I intended to say to you, let us end it. For two years, I have
borne the mask of a hypocrite that I might thus tell you of my idolatry,
and say give me love or die. This letter necessitates a change of
purpose. I welcome it as announcing that my sacrifice is
complete--inadequate in comparison with the one you made in uniting
yourself to me, but all that I have to give. It is requisite that I must
yet live to do others justice--to provide for our children; although
they have been valueless to me since I knew that their souls were not
links between ours. But you I release. Before dawn I shall be on my
return. The provision for your future, thank heaven, no demands of
justice can infringe. Hereafter know me not as your husband, but as one
who wronged you, devoted his all to reparation, and failed.'

I rose--weak and tottering--and passed to the door. I caught but a
glimpse of her face. There was in it, and particularly in her
eyes,--which, perhaps, on account of her dramatic cultivation, had the
faculty of concentrating in a wonderful manner the most powerful as well
as the most indefinable expressions,--a peculiar light, which then I did
not understand, but afterwards, oh, too well. Fool, fool, that I was,
after all my anxious scrutiny of her moods through two years of
intensest a