ilent. It is impossible that we can discuss such a
question."

She came close to his chair.

"I am," she said with a sort of feverish eagerness, "no more of a
lady now than I was then. I am just what I used to be when I made you
ashamed of my ignorance and my mistakes. But if I were pure, if I had
never been divorced, if I were standing here your faithful wife,
would you be glad?"

"Hush! You are paining yourself and me."

"Jack!"

"For God's sake be still!"

She fell on her knees beside him.

"Jack, say you would be glad."

"If you had never left me, if you had remained my faithful wife,
heaven knows that I should be a happier man!"

Bella burst into tears and sobbed convulsively, then pressed her
handkerchief to her mouth. It was bright with blood when she withdrew
it.

"Oh, be careful of yourself," said John Chetwynd, terribly moved;
"you must do what I advise."

"I'll try. I wonder why you should care one way or the other. It is
more than I deserve--you make me so sorry and ashamed. I shall never
see you any more, shall I?"

"I cannot."

"No; I understand, I ought not to ask you. Well, good-bye. There is
my address if you should take a notion to come. It is only a six
months' engagement over here, and if I'm not long for this wicked
world, I may not live to finish it. Keep my card. If one day you
should feel that you could come--just once. You don't hate me?"

"Hate you? No."

"I dare not ask you to forgive; but I begin to know and feel what my
action towards you really meant. Jack, see I am on my knees. Forgive
me!"

"I do. I forgive. If I was hard to you; if, as you say, I expected
and exacted too much from you, may God forgive me."

The tears were still raining down Bella's cheeks.

"Kiss me, Jack."

He shrank back. "You must not ask me that. I cannot."

"Is it that you despise me so utterly?"

"No, no; you don't understand. I--"

"Kiss me."

"Why do you make me speak? I am going to be married again. I kissed
her--a young girl--in this room half an hour ago. I could not outrage
her trust in me."

A sort of stung expression came into the face of the kneeling woman
and she staggered to her feet.

"You are going to take another wife! My God! I never thought--I never
dreamt. It seemed so--so--impossible. I hope she will make you
happier than I did."

"Oh, hush, hush!"

"She is one of your own class--a lady? What is her name?"

"I would rather not mention it. Give me your hand