I had three lines from her: she had found on getting home
the announcement of her husband's death. She had not seen him for seven
years, but she wished me to know it in this way before I should hear of
it in another. It made however in her life, strange and sad to say, so
little difference that she would scrupulously keep her appointment. I
rejoiced for her--I supposed it would make at least the difference of
her having more money; but even in this diversion, far from forgetting
that she had said she was afraid, I seemed to catch sight of a reason
for her being so. Her fear as the evening went on became contagious, and
the contagion took in my breast the form of a sudden panic. It wasn't
jealousy--it was the dread of jealousy. I called myself a fool for not
having been quiet till we were man and wife. After that I should somehow
feel secure. It was only a question of waiting another month--a trifle
surely for people who had waited so long. It had been plain enough she
was nervous, and now that she was free she naturally wouldn't be less
so. What was her nervousness therefore but a presentiment? She had been
hitherto the victim of interference, but it was quite possible she would
henceforth be the source of it. The victim in that case would be my
simple self. What had the interference been but the finger of providence
pointing out a danger? The danger was of course for poor _me_. It had
been kept at bay by a series of accidents unexampled in their frequency;
but the reign of accident was now visibly at an end. I had an intimate
conviction that both parties would keep the tryst. It was more and more
impressed upon me that they were approaching, converging. We had talked
about breaking the spell; well, it would be effectually broken--unless
indeed it should merely take another form and overdo their encounters as
it had overdone their escapes.

This was something I couldn't sit still for thinking of; it kept me
awake--at midnight I was full of unrest. At last I felt there was only
one way of laying the ghost. If the reign of accident was over I must
just take up the succession. I sat down and wrote a hurried note which
would meet him on his return and which as the servants had gone to bed
I sallied forth bareheaded into the empty, gusty street to drop into the
nearest pillar-box. It was to tell him that I shouldn't be able to be at
home in the afternoon as I had hoped and that he must postpone his visit
till dinner-time. Thi