you
know where I go and what I propose to do. You I think must
have forgotten that I was your wife; but I will never
forget it.

You have accused me of having a lover. You cannot have
expected that I should continue to live with you after
such an accusation. For myself I cannot understand how
any man can have brought himself to bring such a charge
against his wife. Even had it been true the accusation
should not have been made by your mouth to my ears.

That it is untrue I believe you must be as well aware as
I am myself. How intimate I was with. Mr. Finn, and what
were the limits of my intimacy with him you knew before
I married you. After our marriage I encouraged his
friendship till I found that there was something in
it that displeased you,--and, after learning that, I
discouraged it. You have said that he is my lover, but
you have probably not defined for yourself that word very
clearly. You have felt yourself slighted because his name
has been mentioned with praise;--and your jealousy has
been wounded because you have thought that I have regarded
him as in some way superior to yourself. You have never
really thought that he was my lover,--that he spoke words
to me which others might not hear, that he claimed from
me aught that a wife may not give, that he received aught
which a friend should not receive. The accusation has been
a coward's accusation.

I shall be at my father's to-night, and to-morrow I will
get you to let my servant bring to me such things as are
my own,--my clothes, namely, and desk, and a few books.
She will know what I want. I trust you may be happier
without a wife, than ever you have been with me. I have
felt almost daily since we were married that you were a
man who would have been happier without a wife than with
one.

Yours affectionately,

LAURA KENNEDY.

"It is at any rate true," she said, when Phineas had read the letter.

"True! Doubtless it is true," said Phineas, "except that I do not
suppose he was ever really angry with me, or jealous, or anything of
the sort,--because I got on well. It seems absurd even to think it."

"There is nothing too absurd for some men. I remember your telling
me that he was weak, and poor, and unworthy. I remember your saying
so when I first thought that he might become my husband. I wish I
had believed you when you told me so. I sho