ch told him something that
she had never directly told him. She blushed as soon as she had spoken,
and Bernard found a beauty in this of which the brightness blinded him
to the awkward aspect of the fact she had just presented to Gordon. At
this fact Gordon stood staring; then at last he apprehended it--largely.

"Ah, then, it had been a plot between you!" he cried out.

Bernard and Angela exchanged a glance of pity.

"We had met for five minutes, and had exchanged a few words before I
came to Baden. It was in Italy--at Siena. It was a simple accident that
I never told you," Bernard explained.

"I wished that nothing should be said about it," said Angela.

"Ah, you loved him!" Gordon exclaimed.

Angela turned away--she went to the window. Bernard followed her for
three seconds with his eyes; then he went on--

"If it were so, I had no reason to suppose it. You have accused me of
deceiving you, but I deceived only myself. You say I put you off your
guard, but you should rather say you put me on mine. It was, thanks to
that, that I fell into the most senseless, the most brutal of delusions.
The delusion passed away--it had contained the germ of better things.
I saw my error, and I bitterly repented of it; and on the day you were
married I felt free."

"Ah, yes, I have no doubt you waited for that!" cried Gordon. "It may
interest you to know that my marriage is a miserable failure."

"I am sorry to hear it--but I can't help it."

"You have seen it with your own eyes. You know all about it, and I need
n't tell you."

"My dear Mr. Wright," said Angela, pleadingly, turning round, "in
Heaven's name, don't say that!"

"Why should n't I say it? I came here on purpose to say it. I came here
with an intention--with a plan. You know what Blanche is--you need n't
pretend, for kindness to me, that you don't. You know what a precious,
what an inestimable wife she must make me--how devoted, how sympathetic
she must be, and what a household blessing at every hour of the day.
Bernard can tell you all about us--he has seen us in the sanctity of our
home." Gordon gave a bitter laugh and went on, with the same strange,
serious air of explaining his plan. "She despises me, she hates me, she
cares no more for me than for the button on her glove--by which I mean
that she does n't care a hundredth part as much. You may say that it
serves me right, and that I have got what I deserve. I married her
because she was silly. I wanted a