“He struck me!  He struck me!  He said it never happened—­but it did—­it did!  Betty, it did!  That was the one thing that came back to me clearest.  He said that I was in delirious hysterics, and that I had struggled with his mother and himself, because they tried to keep me quiet, and prevent the servants hearing.  One awful day he brought Lady Anstruthers into the room, and they stood over me, as I lay in bed, and she fixed her eyes on me and said that she—­being an Englishwoman, and a person whose word would be believed, could tell people the truth—­my father and mother, if necessary, that my spoiled, hysterical American tempers had created unhappiness for me—­merely because I was bored by life in the country and wanted excitement.  I tried to answer, but they would not let me, and when I began to shake all over, they said that I was throwing myself into hysterics again.  And they told the doctor so, and he believed it.”

The possibilities of the situation were plainly to be seen.  Fate, in the form of temperament itself, had been against her.  It was clear enough to Betty as she patted and stroked the thin hands.  “I understand.  Tell me the rest,” she said.

Lady Anstruthers’ head dropped.

“When I was loneliest, and dying of homesickness, and so weak that I could not speak without sobbing, he came to me—­it was one morning after I had been lying awake all night—­and he began to seem kinder.  He had not been near me for two days, and I had thought I was going to be left to die alone—­and mother would never know.  He said he had been reflecting and that he was afraid that we had misunderstood each other—­because we belonged to different countries, and had been brought up in different ways——­” she paused.

“And that if you understood his position and considered it, you might both be quite happy,” Betty gave in quiet termination.

Lady Anstruthers started.

“Oh, you know it all!” she exclaimed

“Only because I have heard it before.  It is an old trick.  And because he seemed kind and relenting, you tried to understand—­and signed something.”

“I wanted to understand.  I wanted to believe.  What did it matter which of us had the money, if we liked each other and were happy?  He told me things about the estate, and about the enormous cost of it, and his bad luck, and debts he could not help.  And I said that I would do anything if—­if we could only be like mother and father.  And he kissed me and I signed the paper.”

“And then?”

“He went to London the next day, and then to Paris.  He said he was obliged to go on business.  He was away a month.  And after a week had passed, Lady Anstruthers began to be restless and angry, and once she flew into a rage, and told me I was a fool, and that if I had been an Englishwoman, I should have had some decent control over my husband, because he would have respected me.  In time I found out what I had done.  It did not take long.”