"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she
possessed no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right
to complain. You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the
anxiety with which you watch the development of this experiment.
Think not so unworthily of me, my husband. Tell me all the risk
we run, and fear not that I shall shrink; for my share in it is
far less than your own."

"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be."

"I submit," replied she calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff
whatever draught you bring me; but it will be on the same
principle that would induce me to take a dose of poison if
offered by your hand."

"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the
height and depth of your nature until now. Nothing shall be
concealed. Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it
seems, has clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of
which I had no previous conception. I have already administered
agents powerful enough to do aught except to change your entire
physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail
us we are ruined."

"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she.

"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is
danger."

"Danger? There is but one danger--that this horrible stigma shall