t a certain candied sweetness which prevented him from
destroying the paper instantly, as he ought to have done. Could his
wife have read all his mind in the matter her anger would have been
somewhat mollified. In spite of the candied sweetness he hated the
correspondence. It had been the woman's doing and not his. It is so
hard for a man to be a Joseph! The Potiphar's wife of the moment has
probably had some encouragement,--and after that Joseph can hardly flee
unless he be very stout indeed. This Joseph would have fled, though
after a certain fashion he liked the woman, had he been able to assure
himself that the fault had in no degree been his. But looking back, he
thought that he had encouraged her, and did not know how to fly. Of all
this Mary knew nothing. She only knew that old Mr. Houghton's wife, who
professed to be her dear friend, had written a most foul love-letter to
her husband, and that her husband had preserved it carefully, and had
then through manifest mistake delivered it over into her hands.

She read it twice, and then stood motionless for a few minutes thinking
what she would do. Her first idea was that she would tell her father.
But that she soon abandoned. She was grievously offended with her
husband; but, as she thought of it, she became aware that she did not
wish to bring on him any anger but her own. Then she thought that she
would start immediately for Berkeley Square, and say what she had to
say to Mrs. Houghton. As this idea presented itself to her, she felt
that she could say a good deal. But how would that serve her? Intense
as was her hatred at present against Adelaide, Adelaide was nothing to
her in comparison with her husband. For a moment she almost thought
that she would fly after him, knowing, as she did, that he had gone to
see his brother at Scumberg's Hotel. But at last she resolved that she
would do nothing and say nothing till he should have perceived that she
had read the letter. She would leave it open on his dressing-table so
that he might know immediately on his return what had been done. Then
it occurred to her that the servants might see the letter if she
exposed it. So she kept it in her pocket, and determined that when she
heard his knock at the door she would step into his room, and place the
letter ready for his eyes. After that she spent the whole day in
thinking of it, and read the odious words over and over again till they
were fixed in her memory. "Say that you lo