r which I ought to thank you.'

"As she turned round, even she was not actress enough to repress a
gesture of terror.

"'I swear to you--she stammered, pale as death.

"'Very good,' I said; 'that is precisely what I have been asking you to
do. But--do you hear?--consider well what you swear and by what you
swear it. By the life of the innocent creature lying in that chamber,
by that God who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation--'

"'I don't know what you mean--I--I have done no wrong and have no need
to swear. This glove, Heaven knows--'

"'Heaven does know!' I shrieked, my smouldering rage breaking out
furiously.

"I reached out my hand toward her; everything reeled before my eyes; I
have no further recollection of what I said and did at that moment,
except that I was very near seizing her by her long locks, as in my
dream, and dragging her across the room and down the stairs, and
casting her out into the street. I am sure, however, that I did not
touch her, but my looks and words must have been so relentless and
unmistakable that she herself found it advisable to leave me. Half an
hour later I was alone again with my child.

"That very day I received a letter from her, full of well-turned
periods and insidious accusations. I read it without emotion. I was
like a well that has been choked forever--nothing can make its water
bubble up again. I answered this letter with a single word--'Swear!' No
second letter came; a last remnant of human feeling, sunk deep in
superstition, made it impossible for her to utter a lie that might be
revenged upon her child.

"I waited three days. Then I wrote her a note that contained no word of
reproach, but simply said that it would be impossible for me to share
my life with her longer. I told her I would provide for her as I had
done heretofore, under the single condition that she would take her
maiden name again and never make any claim upon the child. When I wrote
this--I can't help confessing my foolishness to you--something within
me said, 'She will never consent to this condition. She will come and
fall at your feet, with a full confession of her guilt, and pray you
rather to kill her than to separate her from her child.' Then--what
might I not have done then?--it makes me shudder to think of it. I
almost believe I should have pardoned her--and been wretched ever
after, with my honor wounded and my confidence shaken at the v