Raymond rose, his voice was broken, his features convulsed, his manner calm as the earthquake-cradling atmosphere, he replied:  “I am rejoiced that you take my decision so philosophically.  Doubtless you will play the part of the injured wife to admiration.  Sometimes you may be stung with the feeling that you have wronged me, but the condolence of your relatives, the pity of the world, the complacency which the consciousness of your own immaculate innocence will bestow, will be excellent balm;—­me you will never see more!”

Raymond moved towards the door.  He forgot that each word he spoke was false.  He personated his assumption of innocence even to self-deception.  Have not actors wept, as they pourtrayed imagined passion?  A more intense feeling of the reality of fiction possessed Raymond.  He spoke with pride; he felt injured.  Perdita looked up; she saw his angry glance; his hand was on the lock of the door.  She started up, she threw herself on his neck, she gasped and sobbed; he took her hand, and leading her to the sofa, sat down near her.  Her head fell on his shoulder, she trembled, alternate changes of fire and ice ran through her limbs:  observing her emotion he spoke with softened accents: 

“The blow is given.  I will not part from you in anger;—­I owe you too much.  I owe you six years of unalloyed happiness.  But they are passed.  I will not live the mark of suspicion, the object of jealousy.  I love you too well.  In an eternal separation only can either of us hope for dignity and propriety of action.  We shall not then be degraded from our true characters.  Faith and devotion have hitherto been the essence of our intercourse;—­these lost, let us not cling to the seedless husk of life, the unkernelled shell.  You have your child, your brother, Idris, Adrian”—­

“And you,” cried Perdita, “the writer of that letter.”

Uncontrollable indignation flashed from the eyes of Raymond.  He knew that this accusation at least was false.  “Entertain this belief,” he cried, “hug it to your heart—­make it a pillow to your head, an opiate for your eyes —­I am content.  But, by the God that made me, hell is not more false than the word you have spoken!”

Perdita was struck by the impassioned seriousness of his asseverations.  She replied with earnestness, “I do not refuse to believe you, Raymond; on the contrary I promise to put implicit faith in your simple word.  Only assure me that your love and faith towards me have never been violated; and suspicion, and doubt, and jealousy will at once be dispersed.  We shall continue as we have ever done, one heart, one hope, one life.”

“I have already assured you of my fidelity,” said Raymond with disdainful coldness, “triple assertions will avail nothing where one is despised.  I will say no more; for I can add nothing to what I have already said, to what you before contemptuously set aside.  This contention is unworthy of both of us; and I confess that I am weary of replying to charges at once unfounded and unkind.”