And a burning temptation, the first that had ever assailed her urged her to read it and discover the cause of her husband’s abrupt departure.  Her rebellious conscience protester’ but a devouring and fearful curiosity prevailed.  She seized the paper, smoothed it out, recognized the tremulous, penciled writing as Julie’s, and read: 

“Come alone and kiss me, my poor dear.  I am dying.”

At first she did not understand, the idea of Julie’s death being her uppermost thought.  But all at once the true meaning of what she read burst in a flash upon her; this penciled note threw a lurid light upon her whole existence, revealed the whole infamous truth, all the treachery and perfidy of which she had been the victim.  She understood the long years of deceit, the way in which she had been made their puppet.  She saw them again, sitting side by side in the evening, reading by lamplight out of the same book, glancing at each other at the end of each page.

And her poor, indignant, suffering, bleeding heart was cast into the depths of a despair which knew no bounds.

Footsteps drew near; she fled, and shut herself in her own room.

Presently her husband called her: 

“Come quickly!  Madame Rosset is dying.”

Bertha appeared at her door, and with trembling lips replied: 

“Go back to her alone; she does not need me.”

He looked at her stupidly, dazed with grief, and repeated: 

“Come at once!  She’s dying, I tell you!”

Bertha answered: 

“You would rather it were I.”

Then at last he understood, and returned alone to the dying woman’s bedside.

He mourned her openly, shamelessly, indifferent to the sorrow of the wife who no longer spoke to him, no longer looked at him; who passed her life in solitude, hedged round with disgust, with indignant anger, and praying night and day to God.

They still lived in the same house, however, and sat opposite each other at table, in silence and despair.

Gradually his sorrow grew less acute; but she did not forgive him.

And so their life went on, hard and bitter for them both.

For a whole year they remained as complete strangers to each other as if they had never met.  Bertha nearly lost her reason.

At last one morning she went out very early, and returned about eight o’clock bearing in her hands an enormous bouquet of white roses.  And she sent word to her husband that she wanted to speak to him.  He came-anxious and uneasy.

“We are going out together,” she said.  “Please carry these flowers; they are too heavy for me.”

A carriage took them to the gate of the cemetery, where they alighted.  Then, her eyes filling with tears, she said to George: 

“Take me to her grave.”

He trembled, and could not understand her motive; but he led the way, still carrying the flowers.  At last he stopped before a white marble slab, to which he pointed without a word.