kless of the
consequences of what I was saying. 'I was a witness of your infamous
adultery with the hypocritical parson, and--'

'As I uttered these words, my mother gave a piercing scream, and flew at
me with the fury of a tigress. She beat me cruelly, tore my hair and
clothes, and being a large and powerful woman, I verily believe she
would have killed me, had not my father, hearing the noise, rushed into
the room, and rescued me from her grasp. He demanded an explanation of
this extraordinary scene, and, in spite of the threatening looks and
fierce denial of my mother, I told him all. He staggered and almost fell
to the floor, when I thus boldly accused her of the crime of adultery;
clinging to a chair for support, he faintly ejaculated--'My God, can
this be true?'

'It is false--I call Heaven to witness, it is false!' exclaimed my
wretched and guilty mother--then, overcome by the terrors of the
situation, she sank insensible upon the carpet. My father summoned a
servant to her assistance; and then bade me follow him into another
room. Carefully closing the doors, he turned to me with a stern aspect,
and said, with much severity of tone and manner:

'Girl, you have made a serious charge against your mother; you have
impugned her chastity and her honor. Adultery is the most flagrant crime
that can stain the holy institution of marriage. If I believed your
mother guilty of it, I would cast her off forever!'

'I laughed scornfully as he said this, whereupon he angrily demanded the
cause of my ill-timed mirth; and as I detested his hypocrisy, I boldly
told him that it ill became _him_ to preach on the enormity of the crime
of adultery, after having been guilty of that very offence with his
kitchen wench! He turned deadly pale at this unexpected retort, and
stammered out--'Then you know all--denial is useless.' I told him how I
had witnessed the affair in the kitchen, and reproached him bitterly for
the infamous conduct. He admitted the justness of my rebuke, and when I
informed him that Mr. Flanders had attempted to debauch me, he foamed
with rage, and loaded the reverend libertine with epithets which were
decidedly uncomplimentary. Still, he doubted the story of my mother's
crime--he could not believe _her_ to be guilty of such baseness; but he
assured me that he should satisfy himself of her innocence or guilt,
then left me, after having made me promise not to expose him in
reference to his affair with the servant