of twenty years, on the face that had caused my crime and ruin.  I listened to her clear laugh, silvery as when I heard it chiming with Murray’s under the apple-tree on the night that branded me and drove me forth to wander like Cain; and I resolved, if she really loved her daughter, to make her suffer for all that she had inflicted on me.  The first time I met Gertrude I could have sworn my boyhood’s love was restored to me; she is so entirely the image of what Agnes was.  To possess themselves of my home and property is all that brought them here; and whether as my wife or as my mother-in-law I think Agnes cares little.  The first she sees is impracticable, and now to make me wed Gertrude is her aim.  Like mother, like daughter!”

“Oh! no, no! visit not her mother’s sins on her innocent head!  Gertrude is true and affectionate, and she loves you dearly.”

Edna spoke with a great effort, and the strange tones of her own voice frightened her.

“Loves me?  Ha! ha! just about as tenderly as her mother did before her!  That they do both ’dearly love’—­my purse, I grant you.  Hear me out.  Agnes threw the girl constantly and adroitly in my way; the demon here in my heart prompted revenge, and, above all, I resolved to find out whether you were indeed as utterly indifferent to me as you seemed.  I know that jealousy will make a woman betray her affection sooner than any other cause, and I deliberately set myself to work to make you believe that I loved that pretty cheat over yonder at the parsonage—­that frolicsome wax-doll, who would rather play with a kitten than talk to Cicero; who intercepts me almost daily, to favor me with manifestations of devotion, and shows me continually that I have only to put out my hand and take her to rule over my house, and trample my heart under her pretty feet!  When you gave me that note of hers a week ago, and looked so calmly, so coolly in my face, I felt as if all hope were dying in my heart; for I could not believe that, if you had one atom of affection for me, you could be so generous, so unselfish toward one whom you considered your rival.  That night I did not close my eyes, and had almost decided to revisit South America; but next morning my mother told me you were going to New York—­that all entreaties had failed to shake your resolution.  Then once more a hope cheered me, and I believed that I understood why you had determined to leave those whom I know you love tenderly—­to quit the home my mother offered you and struggle among strangers.  Yesterday they told me you would leave on Monday, and I went out to seek you; but you were with Mr. Hammond, as usual, and instead of you I met—­that curse of my life—­ Agnes!  Face to face, at last, with my red-lipped Lamia!  Oh! it was a scene that made jubilee down in Pandemonium!  She plead for her child’s happiness—­ha, ha, ha!—­implored me most pathetically to love her Gertrude as well as Gertrude loved me, and that my happiness would make me forget the unfortunate