-like strain; after which, the divorce from the writer's wife
was referred to as a thing of speedy attainment, there being little fear
of opposition on her part, as he had given her to understand that he had
witnesses ready to prove her criminal conduct; if she dared to resist
his will in the matter. 'A few months of patient waiting, dearest
Caroline,' was the concluding sentence, 'and then for that happy
consummation we have so long desired.'

"'What do you think of that?' asked poor Delia, looking almost wildly
into my face.

"'I think,' said I, 'that you hold in your hands the means of safety.
Your husband will not dare to force you into a defensive position, when
he learns that you have this document in your possession. It would tell
strongly against him and his perjured witnesses if produced in court.
Then take heart, my friend. This worst evil that you dreaded will
not come to pass. If a divorce is granted, it will have to be on some
different allegation.'

"She grasped my hand, and said, 'Oh, do you think so? Do you think so?'"

"'I am sure of it,' was my confident answer. 'Sure of it. Why the man
would only damage his cause, and disgrace himself, by venturing into a
trial with a witness like this against him.'"

"'Oh, bless you for such confidently assuring words!' and the poor
creature threw herself forward, and laid her face upon my bosom. For
the first time she wept, and for a season, oh how wildly! You will not
wonder that my tears fell almost as fast as hers.

"'I turned in my despair to you,' she said, on growing calm, 'you whom
I loved, and almost revered, in the earlier and better days of my life,
and my heart tells me that I have not turned in vain. Into the darkness
that surrounded me like the pall of death, a little light has already
penetrated.'"

"May it shine unto the perfect day!" I answered fervently.

"And, dear husband! it will shine," said Constance, a glow of enthusiasm
lighting up her face, and giving it a new beauty, "even unto the perfect
day! Not the perfect day of earthly bliss--for I think the sun of that
day has gone down never to rise again for her--but the perfect day of
that higher life, which to many comes not, except through the gates of
tribulation."

CHAPTER XXII.

I was shocked and distressed by the painful revelation which Mrs. Dewey
had made to Constance. A sadder history in real life I had never heard.

A few days after this memorable visit to the Allen