d scarcely understood; but now its clean and
fierce white light shone in secret for me alone. We loved one
another devotedly from the first understanding; and each fresh find
in the heart of the other drew us together with increasing worship
and passion. We were probably the most exquisite man and woman, the
most original, beautiful, fearless and distinguished, that had ever
come together in the benighted township of Penzance. People stared
at us sometimes as though we were a faun and nymph; but they did
not guess that our hearts were formed to match our wondrous bodies.
Fire leaped to fire and before the girl finished her education we
were dedicated to each other forever.

What she saw in me was my extraordinary masculine beauty, combined
with an intellect that set good and evil in their places and soared,
by native instinct, above both. What I discovered in her was an
attitude of mind so inquiring and so lawless, so utterly devoid of
any familiar prejudice or mother-taught opinion, that I felt as the
finder of a priceless jewel unstained by earth or heaven. Her
intellect was pure and not vitiated by any superstition; she
revealed a healthy thirst for experience; she adored me and my
attitude to life. We made fascinating voyages of discovery into each
others' hearts; we experimented from time to time on ordinary
people; and we quickly discovered that we both possessed rare
histrionic ability.

Indeed she had already entertained ambitions for the stage; but
though her dead father would hardly have stood in her way, these
ambitions were not encouraged by the three dolts, her uncles, who
now supposed themselves to control her future. A glorious actress is
lost to the world in my wife.

She had no secrets from me and I soon learned of her expectations;
but it was not the prospect of the Redmayne money that shortened her
uncles' lives. Jenny and I were never man-eaters; and, while my
youthful experience in murder attracted her and increased her
admiration for my qualities, it was not at that time in our minds
to anticipate events or quarrel with her relations.

Her grandfather still lived, when first I met her, and the extent or
disposition of his wealth seldom entered our calculations. For we
were then far too much in love to ponder the value of money, and our
temperaments proved so distinguished that no sordid calculation ever
wasted a moment of our time.

But a year passed; Jenny was ready to wed me and begin life