time, I began to suspect
that when we had married I was only second in her affection, and the
result was that, after a severe struggle with myself, I took measures to
have my wife watched. This step soon resulted in the discovery that the
woman whom I loved with such extravagant devotion, and whom I had, up to
then, believed equally devoted to me, was in the habit of secretly
meeting a young Italian after nightfall in a secluded spot at the bottom
of our own garden. So great, even then, was my faith in your mother,
Leo, that I could not credit the intelligence, to which I indignantly
gave the lie, upon which I was challenged to personally test its
accuracy for myself, if I dared. After this there remained but one
course of action open to me, and Heaven knows with what reluctance I
took it I found that what I had been told, was only too true, for I
secretly witnessed no less than three meetings between your mother and a
young man whom, imperfectly as I could distinguish his form and features
in the dusk, I felt convinced I had somewhere seen before. At length,
after so prolonged a visit that he was surprised by the rising moon, and
his features thus more fully revealed to me, I identified your mother's
visitor as a young fellow named Giuseppe Merlani, whom--why, what is the
matter, Leo? Why do you look at me like that? One would swear you had
seen a ghost! What is it, my boy?"

"Nothing, nothing," I replied; "I will tell you by and bye, father; go
on with your story now, and let me know the worst."

"You know the worst already, Leo," answered my father. "You will
naturally wonder why I did not break in upon the first interview I
witnessed and demand an explanation. I will tell you why I did not. It
was because there was really nothing beyond the clandestine character of
the interview to which I could fairly object. My place of concealment
was, unfortunately, so far distant from the trysting-place that I was
only able to indistinctly catch an occasional word or two when spoken in
an incautiously loud tone of voice, but I will do your mother the
justice to say that there was nothing in her manner to awaken the anger
which I felt, and that what I resented as a want of loyalty to me
consisted in the mere act of clandestinely meeting and conversing with
young Merlani, whom, upon recognising, I at once remembered as having
been a somewhat frequent visitor to the chateau Bisaccia when I first
made your mother's acqu