my reputation by a divorce.

"I was never false to you in thought, word or deed.

"Volaski was not my lover; he was my sternest mentor. He came to the
house during your absence; not for the pleasure of seeing me, for he took
no pleasure in my society; he came to arrange with me the programme of my
departure; an angel of purity or a demon of malice might have been
present at our interviews, and seen nothing to grieve the first or please
the last.

"I was ill and nervous and fearful; I could not travel alone, and
therefore Volaski went with me, and took care of me; but it was the
care a pitiless gend'arme would have taken of a convicted criminal. It
was a care that only hurried me to my destination, my chosen place of
exile--San Vito--and which left me on the day of my arrival there. I have
never seen him since. And now let me say and swear on the Christian faith
and hope of a dying woman--that--from the moment I met Count Waldemar de
Volaski at the British embassy, to the moment I parted with him at San
Vito, he never once came so near me as even to kiss my hand--a courtesy
that any gentleman might have shown without blame. You may not believe me
now; that you did not believe me before was your great misfortune, and
mine, and our son's.

"A week after Volaski had left me you followed us and traced us to San
Vito. I heard of your visit and trembled; for, though really guiltless,
I felt that to meet your eye would seem worse than death. Fortunately
for us both, perhaps, you declined to see me and went away.

"The next news that I heard was of the duel in which you had killed
Volaski. I should scarcely have believed in his death this time, had not
a packet been forwarded to me, through his second. This packet contained
a letter that he had written to me on the eve of the duel, and with a
presentiment of death overshadowing him. In this letter he said that in
death he claimed me again as his wife, and bequeathed to me, as to his
widow, all that he had the power to leave, his personal property, and he
took a last solemn farewell of me.

"In the packet, besides, was his will and other documents necessary to
put me in possession of his bequest, and also a great number of valuable
jewels.

"These, together with my own small dower, have made me independent for
life.

"It will show how perfectly palsied was my heart when I tell you that
I could not feel either horror of crime, grief for Volaski's death, or
gratitude for