fortunes which he had endured. Had he not quarrelled with
every friend he possessed on this score; and should he now stultify
himself in all those quarrels by admitting that he had been cruel,
unjust, and needlessly jealous? And did not truth demand of him that
he should cling to his old assurances? Had she not been disobedient,
ill-conditioned, and rebellious? Had she not received the man, both
him personally and his letters, after he had explained to her that
his honour demanded that it should not be so? How could he come into
such terms as those now proposed to him, simply because he longed
to enjoy the rich sweetness of her soft hand, to feel the fragrance
of her breath, and to quench the heat of his forehead in the cool
atmosphere of her beauty? "Why have you driven me to this by your
intercourse with that man?" he said. "Why, why, why did you do it?"

She was still clinging to him. "Louis," she said, "I am your wife."

"Yes; you are my wife."

"And will you still believe such evil of me without any cause?"

"There has been cause,--horrible cause. You must
repent,--repent,--repent."

"Heaven help me," said the woman, falling back from him, and
returning to the boy who was now seated in Lady Rowley's lap. "Mamma,
do you speak to him. What can I say? Would he think better of me were
I to own myself to have been guilty, when there has been no guilt, no
slightest fault? Does he wish me to purchase my child by saying that
I am not fit to be his mother?"

"Louis," said Lady Rowley, "if any man was ever wrong, mad, madly
mistaken, you are so now."

"Have you come out here to accuse me again, as you did before in
London?" he asked. "Is that the way in which you and she intend to
let the past be, as she says, like a dream? She tells me that I am
ill. It is true. I am ill,--and she is killing me, killing me, by her
obstinacy."

"What would you have me do?" said the wife, again rising from her
child.

"Acknowledge your transgressions, and say that you will amend your
conduct for the future."

"Mamma, mamma,--what shall I say to him?"

"Who can speak to a man that is beside himself?" replied Lady Rowley.

"I am not so beside myself as yet, Lady Rowley, but that I know how
to guard my own honour and to protect my own child. I have told you,
Emily, the terms on which you can come back to me. You had better now
return to your mother's house; and if you wish again to have a house
of your own, and your husband, and