up so that my father could not touch it. Well, of course, when I
married, my husband would not have any settlements, and so he took it,
every farthing."

"And what did he do with it?"

"Spent it upon some other woman in London--most of it. I found him
out; he gave her thousands of pounds at once."

"Well, I should not have thought that he was so generous," he said
with a laugh.

She paused a moment and covered her face with her hand, and then went
on: "If you only knew, Edward, if you had the faintest idea what my
life was till a year and a half ago, when I first saw you, you would
pity me and understand why I am bad, and passionate, and jealous, and
everything that I ought not to be. I never had any happiness as a girl
--how could I in such a home as ours?--and then almost before I was a
woman I was handed over to that man. Oh, how I hated him, and what I
endured!"

"Yes, it can't have been very pleasant."

"Pleasant--but there, we have done with each other now--we don't even
speak much except in public, that's my price for holding my tongue
about the lady in London and one or two other little things--so what
is the use of talking of it? It was a horrible nightmare, but it has
gone. And then," she went on, fixing her beautiful eyes upon his face,
"then I saw you, Edward, and for the first time in my life I learnt
what love was, and I think that no woman ever loved like that before.