down in the preceding chapter. [Godwin's note]

I. "Trial for adultery--Maria defends herself--A separation from bed and
board is the consequence--Her fortune is thrown into chancery--Darnford
obtains a part of his property--Maria goes into the country."

II. "A prosecution for adultery commenced--Trial--Darnford sets out
for France--Letters--Once more pregnant--He returns--Mysterious
behaviour--Visit--Expectation--Discovery--Interview--Consequence."

III. "Sued by her husband--Damages awarded to him--Separation from bed
and board--Darnford goes abroad--Maria into the country--Provides for
her father--Is shunned--Returns to London--Expects to see her lover--The
rack of expectation--Finds herself again with child--Delighted--A
discovery--A visit--A miscarriage--Conclusion."

IV. "Divorced by her husband--Her lover
unfaithful--Pregnancy--Miscarriage--Suicide."

[The following passage appears in some respects to deviate from the
preceding hints. It is superscribed] "THE END.

"She swallowed the laudanum; her soul was calm--the tempest had
subsided--and nothing remained but an eager longing to forget
herself--to fly from the anguish she endured to escape from
thought--from this hell of disappointment.

"Still her eyes closed not--one remembrance with frightful velocity
followed another--All the incidents of her life were in arms, embodied
to assail her, and prevent her sinking into the sleep of death.--Her
murdered child again appeared to her, mourning for the babe of which she
was the tomb.--'And could it have a nobler?--Surely it is better to
die with me, than to enter on life without a mother's care!--I
cannot live!--but could I have deserted my child the moment it was
born?--thrown it on the troubled wave of life, without a hand to support
it?'--She looked up: 'What have I not suffered!--may I find a father
where I am going!--Her head turned; a stupor ensued; a faintness--'Have
a little patience,' said Maria, holding her swimming head (she thought
of her mother), 'this cannot last long; and what is a little bodily pain
to the pangs I have endured?'

"A new vision swam before her. Jemima seemed to enter--leading a little
creature, that, with tottering footsteps, approached the bed. The voice
of Jemima sounding as at a distance, called her--she tried to listen, to
speak, to look!

"'Behold your child!' exclaimed Jemima. Maria started off the bed, and
fainted.--Violent vomiting followed.

"When she was r