hat they have still more
evidence against Tom. They say _she_ is "doing a turn"--whatever that
is--in some variety theatre. According to accounts she _did_ Tom for a
good deal--just served him right.

Do hurry back--I miss you so, and am so lonely. It's a year and a half
since we've been separated so long as this. Come back. Don't make me
jealous or _suspicious_. Besides it isn't complimentary to _trust_ me
so tremendously.

The lawyer is here--I hope he has come to assure me of my positive
victory.

* * * * *

He has thrown up the suit. We are lost! He says Tom has indisputable
proof, and that there is no use trying. Can Lina be a wretch after all?
or do you suppose it is your man? Come at once, at no matter what
sacrifice. The Majestic sails on Wednesday. Hadn't we better throw up
the sponge and take it?

Always, and in spite of everything, your adoring

EDITH.

The Plaintiff

Two Letters

From Mr. John Stuart Kennington to Mrs. Kennington, his wife.

From Mrs. John Stuart Kennington, by special messenger, to the law firm
of Jordan & Fields.

I

_From John Stuart Kennington to Mrs. Kennington, his wife._

Newport, October --th, 189-.

Suspicion is absolutely foreign to my nature. Therefore, far from a
thought of worry when I found my business visits to New York this
summer becoming more and more easy to make as far as you were
concerned, I used instead to get "a lump in my throat" on the train
which left you here behind, believing that your love for me influenced
you to hide your own feelings and aid me all you could in the
performance of my duties, even at the cost of your own preferred
pleasure and at the price of a good many hours of loneliness.
Loneliness! Oh, what fools we men sometimes are! Yes, and how careless
you women become!

I shall never forget the day I changed my plans suddenly, deciding I
wouldn't go to New York that week after all, although my bag was packed
and Smithers already at the station with it. The instantaneous look of
disappointment which leaped across your face, and which for some
seconds you didn't sufficiently realize to conceal--what a vista that
look opened out to me--a hellish vista! And your constrained little
smile--a sort of conscious visible movement of the muscles about your
mouth--"on purpose"--came too late. That first look had been like a
Roentgen ray over the last six months of our life--lives I should say,