ormed to
captivate some rich girl!--and that you would return to share wealth
with me; that the evening of your days would be happy; that you would be
repaid by my splendour for your own disgrace! And when I did marry, and
did ultimately get from the father-in-law who spurned me the capital
of his daughter's fortune, pitifully small though it was compared to
my expectations, my first idea was to send half of that sum to you.
But--but--I was living with those who thought nothing so silly as a
good intention--nothing so bad as a good action. That mocking she-devil,
Gabrielle, too! Then the witch's spell of that d----d green-table! Luck
against one-wait! double the capital ere you send the half. Luck with
one--how balk the tide? how fritter the capital just at the turn of
doubling? Soon it grew irksome even to think of you; yet still when I
did, I said, 'Life is long, I shall win riches; he shall share them some
day or other!'--_Basta, basta_!--what idle twaddle or hollow brag all
this must seem to you!"

"No," said Wife, feebly, and his hand drooped till it touched Jasper's
bended shoulder, but at the touch recoiled as with an electric spasm.

"So, as you say, you found me at Paris. I told you where I had placed
the child, not conceiving that Arabella would part with her, or you
desire to hamper yourself with an encumbrance-nay, I took for granted
that you would find a home as before with some old friend or country
cousin:--but fancying that your occasional visits to her might comfort
you, since it seemed to please you so much when I said she lived. Thus
we parted,--you, it seems, only anxious to save that child from ever
falling into my hands, or those of Gabrielle Desmarets; I hastening to
forget all but the riotous life around me till--"

"Till you came back to England to rob from me the smile of the only face
that I knew would never wear contempt, and to tell the good man with
whom I thought she had so safe a shelter that I was a convicted robber,
by whose very love her infancy was sullied. O Jasper! Jasper!"

"I never said that--never thought of saying it. Arabella Crane did so,
with the reckless woman-will to gain her object. But I did take the
child from you. Why? Partly because I needed money so much that I would
have sold a hecatomb of children for half what I was offered to bind the
girl to a service that could not be very dreadful, since yourself had
first placed here there;--and partly because you had shrun