aintance.

"At length an interview took place which proved to be the final one; and
at this interview I saw your mother place a package in Merlani's hands,
yield herself for a moment to his embrace, and then retreat
precipitately to the house in a state of violent agitation.

"It was then that, for the first time, a clear and intelligible
explanation of these singular meetings dawned upon me. I realised, all
in a moment, that I had been duped by a woman whose chief attraction
had, for me, consisted not so much in her surpassing loveliness of
person, though doubtless that had had its effect upon me, as in that
angelic purity and fascinating simplicity and truthfulness of character
which I now discovered to be a mere worthless sham. It was evident
enough that Merlani had been her lover--most probably her _accepted_
lover--when I appeared upon the scene; and that, dazzled by my
appearance of superior wealth, she had in the most heartless and cruel
manner thrown him overboard; and, with a cunning and artfulness which
even then seemed incredible to me, laid herself out only too
successfully to ensnare me, and by becoming my wife to secure for
herself those comforts and luxuries which Merlani--poor shiftless scamp
that he was--could never have afforded her.

"Now this of itself would not perhaps have vexed me so much--for I never
entertained a very high opinion of feminine conscientiousness or
scrupulosity--had she, when accepting me, been frank enough to admit
that, whilst she was willing to do so, she entertained no very ardent
sentiment of regard for me. But what inflicted an incurable wound alike
upon my pride and my love was the fact that she had responded to my suit
with assurances of reciprocated affection which were assumed with
consummate art. And that which to my mind made the worst feature of it
all was that, by her diabolical spells, she had won me to love her as I
verily believe woman was never loved before. And then, to discover all
in a moment that her love for me was a mere fiction, or at any rate a
secondary sentiment, although, even with such evidence before my eyes as
what I have already described to you, I could scarcely realise it, and
that the idol I worshipped was at best the very incarnation of falsehood
and unworthiness, was altogether too much for me; I brooded and fretted
over it until I could endure it no longer, and then, one day when she
seemed striving to weave anew round my heart the fat