al spell of her
endearments, I broke away from her embrace and suddenly taxed her with
her perfidy, charging her with purchasing her former lover's absence and
silence by the sacrifice of her jewels, the whole of which I had soon
ascertained were missing.

"I hoped for a moment that my sudden outburst, taking her by surprise,
would startle her into making a confession; but no, her self-possession,
even at that trying moment, was perfect. For perhaps a minute she stood
speechless, regarding me with a rapidly changing expression of
countenance, in which incredulity, surprise, horror, grief, indignation,
and finally withering scorn and contempt, were portrayed with an amount
of power and skill which I have never seen equalled; then she retired to
her own apartments, locked herself in, and refused to see me for more
than a week. And when at length we met, and I endeavoured in a somewhat
calmer tone to reopen the subject, she positively refused to listen to a
single word until I had apologised to her for what she chose to
designate my base and insulting suspicions. `You, for whom only I have
hitherto lived, have insulted and humbled me to the very dust,' said
she. `My conduct admits of a simple and easy explanation, but I will
never make it until you have at least acknowledged yourself hasty in
bringing so shameful a charge against me without any previous attempt to
ascertain the truth.' This, I considered, was, under the circumstances,
asking rather too much; and yet, after hurling that defiance at me, your
mother's conduct was so gentle, yet dignified, so perfectly self-
possessed, that at times I felt myself almost inclined to believe that I
had been the victim of some horrible hallucination, and that my wife was
innocent of the deceit with which I had charged her. Well, I need not
linger over this part of my story. You can easily understand that our
domestic happiness was destroyed, and a month later our establishment
was broken up and we removed to England. There, in London, in the house
you know so well, you were born about six months after the occurrence of
the circumstances I have related. It unfortunately happened that urgent
business called me into the country just at that particular time; and
you may imagine the shock I received when, on returning home, I found
the whole house in confusion, and learned that I had been six hours a
parent and one short half-hour a widower. Your mother died quite
suddenly,