be spared. Undoubtedly _she_ loved him; perhaps he loved
her. He living and the husband killed in a duel, their satisfaction
would be doubled--having wrecked and humiliated him and driven him to
despair, they then killed him. After that they could enjoy each other's
society openly, unmolested, and without fear of detection or
punishment. Besides, they might marry and both be happy. This was
unthinkable. He must be killed, he must die like a dog, and he must go
to his death with a foul stain on his name.

These things being settled, the wretched man reread the will. As the
woman was to live, she must be mentioned in the document. He tore up
the will and wrote another, in which he bequeathed her one dollar,
setting forth her shame as the reason for so small a bequest. Then he
wrote out a separate statement of the whole affair, sealed it,
addressed it to the coroner, and placed it in his pocket. It would be
found there after awhile.

Well, why this trembling in every member, this unaccountable nausea,
this unconquerable feeling of horror and repugnance as the draft of the
picture was contemplated? Did instinct arise and dumbly plead for
mercy? What mercy had been shown that mercy could be expected? None
whatever. There was not only revenge to be satisfied, but justice also.
Still, it was horrible! Admit that she deserved it all, deserved even
more, she was a woman! No act of hers could deprive her of her natural
claims upon the stronger sex. As a woman she had inalienable rights
which even she could not forfeit, which men may not withhold. And then,
where could be the benefit of adding physical suffering to mental? One
surely would weaken the force of the other. The lower she should fall
and the deeper her degradation, the smaller would become the efficiency
of her mental agony; and yet mental suffering was the kind which it was
desired should fall upon her.

It would be well, therefore, to leave her some money--a considerable
amount of money--in order that, holding herself above the want which,
in her case, would lead to degradation and a blunting of the
sensibilities, she might suffer all the more keenly; in order that the
memory of her shame might be forever poignant, forever a cause for the
sharpest regrets. This would be better in other ways: her shame
published, she could never associate with those fine characters who had
been her friends; her lover dead and his memory disgraced, he could not
be present to consol