creaking steps, and hastened back with the axe firmly clenched in
both hands, as if I feared a rescue. Placing the light on the earth
floor, I hesitated whether to strike or not--the blow was to reveal
joy or eternal misery to me. To leave the fatal box to itself, and go
to my chamber, was to be racked with horrible doubts. I seized again
the axe, and with repeated blows splintered the cover; then, with
bleeding hands I ripped it off and hurled it from me. Yes, there,
wrapped in rolls, shining with damnable brilliancy, was my husband's
secret. I was first stunned then frantic; cursed myself and him;
wished I had been unable to read; that I had been blind, dead, rather
than find him whom I had enshrined in my heart of hearts as a god, so
unworthy. He would go to a felon's cell--perhaps to an ignominious
death--and me, where could I go? I left the dreadful thing uncovered;
as I backed away from it toward the stairway, those glittering
witnesses grinned at me. I walked the floor all night--I could not
rest. The angel of sleep had fled, frightened at the discord in my
frame, and the angel of death was spreading his baneful wings over me.

"Dawn surprised with its unwelcome light, and found me a shivering,
crouching wretch. That incestuous love with which we had defied the
fates, had now borne its full fruit.

"About mid-day John came home. Despair had cooled me. I handed him the
paper and pointed to the notice. I watched his eager face while he
read it. He flushed and paled, and raising his eyes to meet mine,
asked if I knew all.

"'Yes, I do know all. The box contains base coin. I have seen them.
They are there, and will consign you to a prison and me to my grave;
that is, if there lives one single, pitying human being, who will take