has been required of me that I should grope in Hell before I could see
Heaven in her soul."

He held himself from me by doing violence to his own person--caught at
his cravat and gripped it with both hands.

"What are you saying? Say that again. Of what do you accuse yourself?"

"Of sin," I said. He looked at the cupboard, then with chilly rage at
me.

"What were you doing in there?" he asked; and that was a terrible
question, since there I never ought to have been.

I asked him would he hear me? He nodded his head and sat grimly down by
the table, at which of late he had so happily reclined. He covered his
mouth and nose with his hand, but kept his piercing eyes upon me.
Disconcerting! but even so, had he listened in silence I might have made
him see the truth.

"Sir," I began, "it is true that I love, and have always loved, your
wife; and it is true that I have been wicked enough to declare my
passion. But it is also true that by her, and by her alone, I have been
convinced of my presumption." Here he held up his hand.

"Stop there. You say you have been convinced. How were you convinced?
Where were you convinced? Let me understand you. Was it in there?" He
jerked his hand towards the fatal cupboard.

"Yes," I replied, "it was in there. I was forced to overhear your