the world to be surprised that a man's constancy should not stand
out two years in the absence of his mistress. A man cannot wrap
himself up and keep himself warm with an absent love as a woman
does. But I think that some remembrance of the past must come back
upon you now that you have seen me again. I think that you must
have owned to yourself that you did love me, and that you could
love me again. You sin against me to my utter destruction if you
leave me. I have given up every friend I have to follow you. As
regards the other--nameless lady, there can be no fault; for, as
you tell me, she knows nothing of your passion.

You hinted that there were other reasons,--that we know too little
of each other. You meant no doubt that you knew too little of me.
Is it not the case that you were content when you knew only what
was to be learned in those days of our sweet intimacy, but that
you have been made discontented by stories told you by your
partners at San Francisco? If this be so, trouble yourself at any
rate to find out the truth before you allow yourself to treat a
woman as you propose to treat me. I think you are too good a man
to cast aside a woman you have loved,--like a soiled glove,--
because ill-natured words have been spoken of her by men, or
perhaps by women, who know nothing of her life. My late husband,
Caradoc Hurtle, was Attorney-General in the State of Kansas when I
married him, I being then in possession of a considerable fortune
left to me by my mother. There his life was infamously bad. He
spent what money he could get of mine, and then left me and the
State, and took himself to Texas;--where he drank himself to
death. I did not follow him, and in his absence I was divorced
from him in accordance with the laws of Kansas State. I then went
to San Francisco about property of my mother's, which my husband