y does the punishment fall all on the woman, and the
man go free? I am here in disgrace and humiliation, in shame and
sorrow--in fear of losing my home, my husband, it may even be my
life--while he, who was a thousand times more guilty than I was, is
welcomed, flattered, courted! It is cruel and unjust.

"I have told you," she said, "how hard my childhood was, how lonely and
desolate and miserable I was with my girl's heart full of love and no
one to love.

"When I was eighteen I went to live with a very wealthy family in
London, the name--I will not hide one detail from you--the name was
Cleveland; they had one little girl, and I was her governess. I went
with them to their place in the country, and there a visitor came to
them, a handsome young nobleman, Lord Dacius by name.

"It was a beautiful sunlit county. I had little to do, plenty of
leisure, and he could do as he would with his time. We had met and had
fallen in love with each other. I did not love him, I idolized him;
remember in your judgment that no one had ever loved me. No one had ever
kissed my face and said kind words to me; and I, oh! wretched, miserable
me, I was in Heaven. To be loved for the first time, and by one so
handsome, so charming, so fascinating! A few weeks passed like a dream.
I met him in the early morning, I met him in the gloaming. He swore a
hundred times each day that he would marry me when he came of age. We
must wait until then. I never dreamed of harm or wrong, I believed in
him implicitly, as I loved him. I believe every word that came from his
lips. May Heaven spare me! I need tell you no more. A girl of eighteen
madly, passionately in love; a girl as ignorant as any girl could be,
and a handsome, experienced man of the world.

"There was no hope, no chance. I fell; yet almost without knowing how I
had fallen. You will spare me the rest, I know.

"When in my sore anguish and distress, I went to him, I thought he would
marry me at once; I thought he would be longing only to make me happy
again; to comfort me; to solace me; to make amends for all I had
suffered. I went to him in London with my heart full of longing and
love. I had left my situation, and my stern, cruel grandmother believed
that I had found another. If I lived to be a thousand years old I should
never forget my horror and surprise. He had worshipped me; he had sworn
a thousand times over that he would marry me; he had loved me with the
tenderest love.

"Now,