gave myself up to that with my whole soul; my heart was dead; and
they told me I made more progress in two years than other girls made
in six. I had nothing else to live for.'

'Except the hope of a rich husband,' said Mr. Egerton, with a sneer.

'O God, how cruel a man can to be a woman he has once loved!' cried
Mrs. Darrell passionately. 'Yes, I did marry a rich man, Angus; but
I never schemed or tried to win him. The chance came to me without a
hope or a thought of mine. It was the chance of rescue from the
dreariest life of drudgery that a poor dependent creature ever
lived, and I took it. But I have never forgotten you, Angus Egerton,
not for one hour of my life.'

'I am sorry you should have taken the trouble to remember me,' he
answered very coldly. 'For some years of my life I made it my chief
business to forget you, and all the pain connected with our
acquaintance; and having succeeded in doing that, it seems a pity
that we should disturb the stagnant waters of that dead lake which
men call the past.'

'Would to God that we had never met again!' she said.

'I can quite echo that aspiration, if we are likely to have many
such scenes as this.'

'Cruel--cruel!' she muttered. 'O Angus, I have been so patient! I
have clung to hope in the face of despair. When my husband died I
fancied your old love would reawaken. How can such things die? I
thought it was to me you would come back--to me, whom you once loved