“’You may have guessed from what I have said thus far, that I propose to apply for a bill of divorce at no distant day.’

“I was perfectly stupefied at this announcement.  ’You surely will not commit this great wrong, Geoffrey,’ I exclaimed.  ’You do not wish, nor need me to tell you that I am innocent of the charge.’

“‘No,’ he said slowly, in a more softened tone, though the hard lines around the firm mouth never relaxed, and the cold eyes regarded me with a fixed, relentless gaze.  ’No, I do not.  Here, with none to overhear us, I will tell you truly that I do not believe you guilty of this crime which I am about to charge against you, and to prove before the world.  You were a spoiled, capricious beauty when I met with you, and I, merely a fortune hunter.  Our marriage was a fatal mistake.  But you have discharged your duties faithfully, and I know it will be a satisfaction in the future to have this to reflect upon.

“’Do not think, though, that you can swerve me from my purpose.  We are best apart.  Your life will pass quietly and happily in some grateful retreat, all the happier for this storm that now threatens your peace.  You will have nothing to regret.  The world will make the most of the nine day’s wonder, and then it will be forgotten.  As for me my lot is chosen.  Wealth and power are essential to my happiness.  I must be looked up to as a person of position and influence, and I prefer to be feared rather than loved.  The wealth I shall gain with the hand of this woman, whom fate has destined to be your successor, will place me upon the very pinnacle of prosperity.  It is a temptation too strong to be resisted.’

“’Of course you, as the victim, will cry out against the cruelty of the act, but it will be of no avail.  I grant that I am doing you an injustice, and you will assail me with tears and entreaties, but, when my stoical indifference renders them useless, you will threaten me with future retribution, and cry out that God will never permit such injustice; but I shall not pause, nor relent.  I am no better, nor yet worse, than others.  Here, in a Christian community, deeds similar to mine are perpetrated every day, and strong-handed might, reeking with crime, flaunts its purple and fine linen in the high places of the earth, while persecuted and down-trodden innocence creeps away to hide its sorrows in the grave.  It is the way of the world, and I choose to follow no other leader.’

“‘But the child, Geoffrey,’ I gasped, ’my precious child; only let me take her with me, give me her company in my exile, and I will do all you would have me.’

“‘No,’ he insisted, sternly.  ’She is my daughter, and I prefer to have her brought up under my own immediate supervision.  I wish to make a lady of Miss Westbourne, and I do not consider you a proper person to be entrusted with the charge.’

“’And you would rob a mother of her only child?  God has forgotten me, or he would surely punish such iniquity!’