ould accuse you of
anything!'

'But you do accuse me--silently!' she gasped. 'I could not write
thereon--and ask you to hear me. It was too much, too degrading. But
would that I had been less proud! They suspect me of poisoning him,
William! But, oh my dear husband, I am innocent of that wicked crime! He
died naturally. I loved you--too soon; but that was all!'

Nothing availed to save her. The worm had gnawed too far into her heart
before Sir William's return for anything to be remedial now; and in a few
weeks she breathed her last. After her death the people spoke louder,
and her conduct became a subject of public discussion. A little later
on, the physician, who had attended the late Sir John, heard the rumour,
and came down from the place near London to which he latterly had
retired, with the express purpose of calling upon Sir William Hervy, now
staying in Casterbridge.

He stated that, at the request of a relative of Sir John's, who wished to
be assured on the matter by reason of its suddenness, he had, with the
assistance of a surgeon, made a private examination of Sir John's body
immediately after his decease, and found that it had resulted from purely
natural causes. Nobody at this time had breathed a suspicion of foul
play, and therefore nothing was said which might afterwards have
established her innocence.

It being thus placed beyond doubt that this beautiful and noble lady had
been done to death by a vile scandal that was wholly unfounded, her
husband was stung with a dreadful remorse at the share he had taken in
her misfortunes, and left the country anew, this time never to return
alive. He survived her but a few years, and his body was brought home
and buried beside his wife's under the tomb which is still visible in the
parish church. Until lately there was a good portrait of her, in weeds
for her first husband, with a cross in her hand, at the ancestral seat of
her family, where she was much pitied, as she deserved to be. Yet there
were some severe enough to say--and these not unjust persons in other
respects--that though unquestionably innocent of the crime imputed to
her, she had shown an unseemly wantonness in contracting three marriages
in such rapid succession; that the untrue suspicion might have been
ordered by Providence (who often works indirectly) as a punishment for
her self-indulgence. Upon that point I have no opinion to offer.

* * * * *

The reverend the Vice-Presid