me. Oh, heavens,
how ill you are!" As she said this she drew nearer to him, so that
her face was almost close to his. "Louis, come back; come back, and
let it all be forgotten. It shall be a dream, a horrid dream, and
nobody shall speak of it." He left his hand within hers and stood
looking into her face. He was well aware that his life since he had
left her had been one long hour of misery. There had been to him no
alleviation, no comfort, no consolation. He had not a friend left to
him. Even his satellite, the policeman, was becoming weary of him and
manifestly suspicious. The woman with whom he was now lodging, and
whose resources were infinitely benefited by his payments to her, had
already thrown out hints that she was afraid of him. And as he looked
at his wife, he knew that he loved her. Everything for him now was
hot and dry and poor and bitter. How sweet would it be again to sit
with her soft hand in his, to feel her cool brow against his own, to
have the comfort of her care, and to hear the music of loving words!
The companionship of his wife had once been to him everything in the
world; but now, for many months past, he had known no companion. She
bade him come to her, and look upon all this trouble as a dream not
to be mentioned. Could it be possible that it should be so, and that
they might yet be happy together,--perhaps in some distant country,
where the story of all their misery might not be known? He felt all
this truly and with a keen accuracy. If he were mad, he was not all
mad. "I will tell you of nothing that is past," said she, hanging to
him, and coming still nearer to him, and embracing his arm.

Could she have condescended to ask him not to tell her of the
past;--had it occurred to her so to word her request,--she might
perhaps have prevailed. But who can say how long the tenderness of
his heart would have saved him from further outbreak;--and whether
such prevailing on her part would have been of permanent service? As
it was, her words wounded him in that spot of his inner self which
was most sensitive,--on that spot from whence had come all his fury.
A black cloud came upon his brow, and he made an effort to withdraw
himself from her grasp. It was necessary to him that she should in
some fashion own that he had been right, and now she was promising
him that she would not tell him of his fault! He could not thus
swallow down all the convictions by which he had fortified himself to
bear the mis