think it right and best to stay where my wife is. Anna, what is
to be the result of this strange suspicion of yours, but to make us both
unhappy, and me desperate! Why, I shall be the laughing-stock of the
town--and I confess it is more than I can bear without flinching, to
have it circulated about, that Seabrook married a wife who cut him
adrift the first thing she did. And then look at your position, too,
which would be open to every unkind remark. You must not incur this
almost certain ruin.'

"'Mr. Seabrook,' I said, more calmly than I had yet spoken; 'what you
have said has suggested itself to me before. Stay here, then, if you
must, until I can take measures to satisfy myself of the legality of our
marriage. You can keep your own counsel, and I can keep mine. I have
spoken to no one about this matter, nor will I for the present. There is
your old room; your old place at the table. I will try to act as natural
as possible; more than this you must not expect of me.' This
business-like tone nettled him.

"'May I inquire, Mrs. Seabrook, how long a probation I may anticipate,
and what measures you intend taking to establish my good or bad
character? A man may not be willing to wait always for a wife.'

"'Very well,' I replied to this covert threat; 'when you tire of
waiting, you know what to do.' But my voice must have trembled, for he
instantly changed his manner. There was more chance of winning me
through my weakness than of intimidating me, coward though I was.

"'My dear Anna,' he said kindly, 'this is a most mortifying and trying
predicament that I am in; and you must pardon me if I seem selfish. I do
not know how I am to bear several months of this unnatural life you
propose; and in thinking of myself I forget you. Yet your case, as _you_
see it, is harder than mine; and I ought to pity and comfort you. If my
darling would only let me!' He stretched out his arms to me. It was all
I could do to keep from rushing into them, and sobbing on his breast. I
was so tempest-tossed and weary!--what would I not have given to lay
down my burdens?"

"That is where the unrecognized heroism of women comes in. How few men
would suffer in this way for the right! Had you chosen to ignore the
tale that you had heard, and taken this man whom fortune had thrown with
you upon this far-off coast, he might have been to you a kind friend and
protector. Do you not think so?"

"Very likely. Plenty of bad men, when deferred to, have