“She avows her intention of living separate from you, and supporting herself and child by her own efforts.”

This declaration aroused a feeling of indignant pride in the husband’s mind.  “It is my child as well as hers,” said he.  “She may desert me, if she will; but she cannot expect me to give up my child.  To that I will never submit.”

“My dear sir,” said Mr. Edmondson, “do not permit your mind to chafe, angrily, over this unhappy matter.  That will widen not heal, the breach.  In affairs of this kind, pardon me for the remark, there are always faults on both sides; and the duty of each is to put away his or her own state of anger and antagonism and seek to reconcile the other, rather than to compel submission.  As a man, you have the advantage of a stronger and clearer judgment,—­exercise it as a man.  Feeling and impulse often rule in a woman’s mind, from the very nature of her mental conformation; and we should remember this when we pass judgment on her actions.  There is often more honour in yielding a point than in contending for it to the end, in the face of threatened disaster.  Let me then urge you to seek a reconciliation, while there is yet opportunity, and permit the veil of oblivion to fall, while it may, over this painful event.  As yet, the fact has not passed from the knowledge of myself and wife.  Heal the breach, and the secret remains where it is.”

“If she will return, I will receive her, and forgive and forget all.  Will you say this to her from me?”

“Why not go to her at once?  See her face to face.  This is the best and surest way.”

“No,” said Lane, coldly.  “She has left me of her own choice; and, now, she must return.  I gave her no cause for the rash act.  Enough for me that I am willing to forgive and forget all this.  But I am not the man to humble myself at the feet of a capricious woman.  It is not in me.”

“Mr. Lane, you are wrong!” said the visitor, in a decided tone.  “All wrong.  Do you believe that your wife would have fled from you without a real or imagined cause?”

“No.  But the cause is only in her imagination.”

“Then see her and convince her of this.  It is the same to her, at present, whether the cause be real or imaginary.  She believes it real, and feels all its effects as real.  Show her that it is imaginary, and all is healed.”

Lane shook his head.

“I have never humbled myself before a man, much less a woman,” said he.

This remark exhibited to Mr. Edmondson the whole ground-work of the difficulty.  Lane regarded a woman as inferior to a man, and had for her, in consequence, a latent feeling of contempt.  He could understand, now, why his wife had left him; for he saw, clearly, that, with such an estimation of woman, he would attempt to degrade her from her true position; and, if she possessed an independent spirit, render her life wellnigh insupportable.  Earnestly did he seek to convince