“Suddenly, at a great commercial crisis, everything was swept from us.  ‘We are now,’ said my husband, ’for the first time on an equal footing.  The fortune, which you brought me, has been lost from no carelessness upon my part.  We are engulfed in one common ruin with others who have before stood steadfast through similar trials.  We shall both suffer in common, for I have lost that for which I sacrificed myself, and have now nothing to console me.  I presume you have learned that fact before this, Mrs. Westbourne, and know that I married you for the glittering prize which has just slipped from my grasp.’

“‘Oh!  Geoffrey,’ I exclaimed, ‘do not be so cruel.’

“‘You call it cruelty,’ he replied, ’but I say it is a terrible fact.  I never cared for but but one woman on earth, and I broke her heart when I told her that I had forever placed a barrier between us by my own act.  She died soon after our marriage.’

“‘Why have I not known of this before?’ I asked.  ’Why tell me after so long a time, when there can be no reparation for the crime?  It was a double wrong you committed when you broke one woman’s heart and made another’s whole life desolate.  I never dreamed you cared for another.’

“‘There I had the advantage of you, my dear,’ he said coolly.  ’I knew you were a little too fond of young Angier for my interest.  If I had cared enough about you I should have been furiously jealous, but merely having an eye to the pecuniary advantage, I let the little dream go on until I was pleased to put an end to it.  Could I have forseen this hour I would have acted far differently.’

“A week after he came in with a face pale with excitement.  ’Such glorious news,’ he exclaimed.  ’By the luckiest train of accidents I have come into possession of a clear hundred thousand, and I don’t think I shall very deeply deplore the demise of the venerable individual who departed this life just at the right moment.’

“I was nearly happy at this announcement.  I thought now I could rely on his magnanimity.  I reflected that I had bestowed everything upon him in my prosperity, and I hoped that now he would, at least, be more considerate of my feelings.

“But I was unhappily disappointed.  ‘The tables are turned now, my dear,’ he said, triumphantly.  ’Instead of my house and furniture, my servants, and my money, it is quite another story, and henceforth I shall have a word to say as to the manner in which my means shall be invested.’

“He was true to his word.  I was left absolutely penniless.  If my wardrobe needed replenishing I had to tell him the exact amount it would take for each article.  I had, too, nothing to bestow upon charitable objects, for he had always condemned my efforts to relieve others as indiscriminate charity, that did more harm than good.  He bought everything that was consumed in the house, and hired and paid the servants himself.  This was something new for him to do.  My domestics had been well trained, and wholly under my control, having been long in my aunt’s family, and accustomed to my ways.  My husband had often heard me say that it would be impossible to keep house without these faithful attendants, for I was totally inexperienced in such matters.