“‘I have never believed any thing else,’ said I.

“A faint, sad smile flitted across her wan face.

“‘The consequences of this error on my part,’ she went on, ’threaten to be of the most disastrous kind.  My husband has ever since conducted himself towards me as if I were a guilty and disgraced thing.  We occupy separate apartments; and though we sit together at the same table, words rarely pass between us.  Occasionally he comes home under the influence of wine, and then his abuse of me is fearful to think of.  If any thing could waken a thoughtless creature sleeping on enchanted ground, it was this.’

“’There has never been anything more than the semblance of love between us,’ she continued.  ’The more intimately I came to know him, after our marriage, the more did my soul separate itself from him, until the antipodes were not farther apart than we.  So we lived on; I seeking a poor compensation in fashionable emulations and social triumphs; and he in grand business enterprises—­castles in the air perhaps.  Living thus, we have come to this point in our journey; and now the crisis has arrived!’

“She paused.

“’ What crisis?’ I asked.

“‘He demands a separation.’  Her voice choked—­’a divorce—­’

“‘On what ground?’

“‘On legal ground.’  She bent down, covered her face, and uttered a groan so full of mental anguish, that I almost shuddered as the sound penetrated my ears.

“‘I am to remain passive,’ she resumed, while he charges me before the proper court, with infidelity, and gains a divorce through failure on my part to stand forth and defend myself.  This, or a public trial of the case, at which he pledges himself to have witnesses who will prove me criminal, is my dreadful alternative.  If he gains a divorce quietly on the charge of infidelity, I am wronged and disgraced; and if successful in a public trial, through perjured witnesses, the wrong and disgrace will be more terrible.  Oh, my friend! pity and counsel me.’

“‘There is one,’ said I, ’better able to stand your friend in a crisis like this than I am.’

“‘Who?’ She looked up anxiously.

“‘Your father.’

“A shadow fell over her face, and she answered mournfully,

“’Even he is against me.  How it is I cannot tell; but my husband seems to have my father completely under his influence.’

“‘Your mother?’ I suggested.

“’Can only weep with me.  I have no adviser, and my heart beats so wildly all the time, that thought confuses itself whenever it makes an effort to see the right direction.  Fear of a public trial suggests passive endurance of wrong on my part; but an innate sense of justice cries out against this course, and urges me to resistance.’

“‘If you are innocent,’ said I, firmly, ’in the name and strength of innocence defend yourself!  All that a woman holds dearest is at stake.  If they drive you to this great extremity, do not shrink from the trial.’