pale. "Oh, what a cheat that woman is!"

But she turned paler when Christopher said, "That is the one honest
bill; for I gave you leave. It is these that part us: these! these! Look
at them, false heart! There, go and pack up your things. We can live
here no longer; we are ruined. I must send you back to your father."

"I thought you would, sooner or later," said Mrs. Staines, panting,
trembling, but showing a little fight. "He told you I wasn't fit to be a
poor man's wife."

"An honest man's wife, you mean: that is what you are not fit for. You
will go home to your father, and I shall go into some humble lodging to
work for you. I'll contrive to keep you, and find you a hundred a year
to spend in dress--the only thing your heart can really love. But I
won't have an enemy here in the disguise of a friend; and I won't have a
wife about me I must treat like a servant, and watch like a traitor."

The words were harsh, but the agony with which they were spoken
distinguished them from vulgar vituperation.

They overpowered poor Rosa; she had been ailing a little some time, and
from remorse and terror, coupled with other causes, nature gave way. Her
lips turned white, she gasped inarticulately, and, with a little piteous
moan, tottered, and swooned dead away.

He was walking wildly about, ready to tear his hair, when she tottered;
he saw her just in time to save her, and laid her gently on the floor,
and kneeled over her.