fficient strength and composure to make the effort,
also wrote a long letter to Sir William.

She told him everything, just as if she had not written to him before--how
his letters had suddenly ceased, and how she had waited and hoped to hear
from him until she had grown weary and heart-sick from his long silence.

She told of her meeting with the Farnums, and of the wretched story she
had just learned from the elder lady. She begged him for but one word of
contradiction, and she would believe in him and wait patiently for his own
time for coming to her. But if the terrible tale was true--if he had
deceived her from the first, and had cheated her and her father into
believing that he was making her really his wife, when it had been only a
farce, to tell her plainly, and she would never trouble him again.

When the letter was finished she went out and posted it herself, to insure
its going by the first steamer, and then she tried to school herself to
wait patiently for a reply.

But in a day or two she became conscious of a change in the inmates of the
house toward her. Ladies whom she knew met and passed her with a cold nod,
and a bold stare, which brought a scarlet flush to her cheeks. Some,
indeed, did not deign to recognize her at all. The servants were less
attentive, almost rude, the clerk and proprietor distant and reserved.

Too well she understood what it all meant, and there was but one way to
account for the sudden change in the atmosphere which surrounded her.

Mrs. Farnum, the only one in the house who could possibly know anything
regarding her history, must have given some hint of her apparently
questionable position.

But there was no redress, for she would not humiliate herself enough to
ask an explanation; so she could only submit in silence, and bear it with
what fortitude she could summon to her aid, while she was waiting to hear
from her husband.

But she endured agonies during the time, and the days dragged, oh, so
heavily by.

She remained closely in her own rooms, seeing no one save the servants and
her own nurse, and devoting herself to the care of her little one.

At last the day that she had set for a letter to come arrived, and she
grew feverish, almost hysterical while waiting for the mail to be
delivered.

She heard the clerk going his rounds; he stopped at Mrs. Farnum's door to
leave something, and then came on toward her door. Her heart stood still
as he approached. He passed by