spectacles. Had her own eyes deceived her? Or had Herbert Linley
actually addressed her daughter--after having been guilty of the
cruelest wrong that a husband can inflict on a wife--as "Dear
Catherine"? Yes: there were the words, when she put her
spectacles on again. Was he in his right senses? or had he
written in a state of intoxication?

Mrs. Linley waited, with a preoccupied mind: she showed no signs
of impatience or surprise. As it presently appeared, she was not
thinking of the letter addressed to her by Herbert, but of the
letter written by Randal. "I want to look at it again." With that
brief explanation she turned at once to the closing lines which
had offended her when she first read them.

Mrs. Presty hazarded a guess at what was going on in her
daughter's mind. "Now your husband has written to you," she said,
"are you beginning to think Randal's opinion may be worth
considering again?" With her eyes still on Randal's letter, Mrs.
Linley merely answered: "Why don't you begin?" Mrs. Presty began
as follows, leaving out the familiarity of her son-in-law's
address to his wife.

"I hope and trust you will forgive me for venturing to write to
you, in consideration of the subject of my letter. I have
something to say concerning our child. Although I have deserved
the worst you can think of me, I believe you will not deny that
even your love for our little Kitty (while we were living
together) was not a truer love than mine. Bad as I am, my heart
has that tender place left in it still. I cannot endure
separation from my child."