d choke something. I
am sure now, from what I know of her character, that she--even in the
approaches of delirium--was preventing herself from crying out. Her last
hold of reason was a thought for Richard. It was against a creature like
this that we plotted! I have the comfort of knowing that I did my
share in helping to destroy her. Had she seen her husband a day or two
before--but no! there was a new System to interdict that! Or had she not
so violently controlled her nature as she did, I believe she might have
been saved.

"He said once of a man, that his conscience was a coxcomb. Will you
believe that when he saw his son's wife--poor victim! lying delirious,
he could not even then see his error. You said he wished to take
Providence out of God's hands. His mad self-deceit would not leave him.
I am positive, that while he was standing over her, he was blaming her
for not having considered the child. Indeed he made a remark to me that
it was unfortunate 'disastrous,' I think he said--that the child should
have to be fed by hand. I dare say it is. All I pray is that this young
child may be saved from him. I cannot bear to see him look on it. He
does not spare himself bodily fatigue--but what is that? that is the
vulgarest form of love. I know what you will say. You will say I have
lost all charity, and I have. But I should not feel so, Austin, if I
could be quite sure that he is an altered man even now the blow has
struck him. He is reserved and simple in his speech, and his grief is
evident, but I have doubts. He heard her while she was senseless call
him cruel and harsh, and cry that she had suffered, and I saw then his
mouth contract as if he had been touched. Perhaps, when he thinks, his
mind will be clearer, but what he has done cannot be undone. I do not
imagine he will abuse women any more. The doctor called her a 'forte
et belle jeune femme:' and he said she was as noble a soul as ever God
moulded clay upon. A noble soul 'forte et belle!' She lies upstairs.
If he can look on her and not see his sin, I almost fear God will never
enlighten him."

She died five days after she had been removed. The shock had utterly
deranged her. I was with her. She died very quietly, breathing her last
breath without pain--asking for no one--a death I should like to die.

"Her cries at one time were dreadfully loud. She screamed that she was
'drowning in fire,' and that her husband would not come to her to save
her. We deadened