came here as Madame
Vine. I could not stay away, Archibald, forgive me!"

His mind was in a whirl, his ideas had gone wool-gathering. The first
clear thought that came thumping through his brain was, that he must be
a man of two wives. She noticed his perplexed silence.

"I could not stay away from you and my children. The longing for you
was killing me," she reiterated, wildly, like one talking in a fever.
"I never knew a moment's peace after the mad act I was guilty of, in
quitting you. Not an hour had I departed when my repentance set in; and
even then I would have retraced and come back, but I did not know how.
See what it has done for me!" tossing up her gray hair, holding out her
attenuated wrists. "Oh, forgive--forgive me! My sin was great, but my
punishment was greater. It has been as one long scene of mortal agony."

"Why did you go?" asked Mr. Carlyle.

"Did you not know?"

"No. It has always been a mystery to me."

"I went out of love for you."

A shade of disdain crossed his lips. She was equivocating to him on her
death-bed.

"Do not look in that way," she panted. "My strength is nearly gone--you
must perceive that it is--and I do not, perhaps, express myself clearly.
I loved you dearly, and I grew suspicious of you. I thought you were
false and deceitful to me; that your love was all given to another; and
in my sore jealousy, I listened to the temptings of that bad man, who
whispered to me of revenge. It was not so, was it?"

Mr. Carlyle had regained his calmness, outwardly, at any rate. He stood
by the side of the bed, looking down upon her, his arms crossed upon his
chest, and his noble form raised to its full height.

"Was it so?" she feverishly repeated.

"Can you ask it, knowing me as you did then, as you must have known me
since? I never was false to you in thought, in word, or in deed."

"Oh, Archibald, I was mad--I was mad! I could not have done it in
anything but madness. Surely you will forget and forgive!"

"I cannot forget. I have already forgiven!"

"Try and forget the dreadful time that has passed since that night!" she
continued, the tears falling on her cheeks, as she held up to him one
of her poor hot hands. "Let your thoughts go back to the days when
you first knew me; when I was here, Isabel Vane, a happy girl with my
father. At times I have lost myself in a moment's happiness in thinking
of it. Do you remember how you grew to love me, though you thought you
might not te