ould now hope to meet. I was the wife--oh, the folly of
it--but this was known to so few, and those were so far removed,
and one even--my friend Sadie--being dead-- Why not ignore the
miserable secret ceremony and cheat myself into believing myself
free, and enjoy this world of pleasure and fashion as Cora was
enjoying it and--trust. Trust what? Why the Klondike! That
swallower-up of men. Why shouldn't it swallow one more-- Oh, I
know that it sounds hateful. But I was desperate; I had seen you.

"I had one letter from him after he reached Alaska, but that was
before I left Owosso. I never got another. And I never wrote to
him. He told me not to do so until he could send me word how and
where to write; but when these directions came my heart had changed
and my only wish was to forget his existence. And I did forget
it--almost. I rode and danced with you and went hither and yon,
lavishing money and time and heart on the frivolities which came in
my way, calling myself Veronica and striving by these means to crush
out every remembrance of the days when I was known as Antoinette
and Antoinette only. For the Klondike was far and its weather
bitter, and men were dying there every day, and no letters came (I
used to thank God for this), and I need not think--not yet--whither
I was tending. One thing only made me recall my real position.
That was when your eyes turned on mine--your true eyes, so bright
with confidence and pride. I wanted to meet them full, and when I
could not, I suddenly knew why, and suffered.

"Do you remember the night when we stood together on the balcony
at the Ocean View House and you laid your hand on my arm and
wondered why I persisted in looking at the moon instead of into
your expectant face? It was because the music then being played
within recalled another night and the pressure of another hand on
my arm--a hand whose touch I hoped never to feel again, but which
at that moment was so much more palpable than yours that I came
near screaming aloud and telling you in one rush of maddened
emotion my whole abominable secret.

"I did not accept your attentions nor agree to marry you, without
a struggle. You know that. You can tell, as no one else can, how
I held back and asked for time and still for time, thus grieving
you and tearing my own breast till a day came--you remember the
day when you found me laughing like a mad woman in a circle of
astonished friends? You drew me aside