at the woman I loved cared for him only as a
sister might, and I might have fairly won her. He was accused of a
crime, and my word might have cleared him. Instead of that, it
convicted him. On my false testimony he went, an innocent man, to
prison, and I came with the woman I had perjured my soul to win as my
wife to this country.

"For years I tried to forget. I could not. My sin followed me day and
night, and poisoned every moment of my existence. At last I made up my
mind to go back to the old place and give myself up, and make amends
for what I had done. I left my wife and child here, and worked my
passage back to England. I was too late. Justice had been done so far
as human law could do it. The real criminals had been found, and he I
had wronged was free. And he had gone to America. I knew what for. He
was slow to anger, but, when once aroused, his anger was terrible. I
knew that he was seeking me, and I knew that he would find me. From
that time I never lay down to sleep but my last thought was, 'It may
be to-morrow!' I never rose in the morning that I did not say to
myself, 'Perhaps it may be to-day!' For years I have lived with this
spectre of vengeance at my elbow. What my life has been since I came
among you, you think you know. What it really has been, no mortal man
can guess. At last, what was to be came to pass. He found me."

A shudder shook the speaker, and he was silent an instant. Then he
continued:

"He found me. I have read in his own hand-writing _how_ he found me,
and all the history of his ruined life. He has stood at my window with
my life in his hands, and at the last moment--God alone knows why,
perhaps for the sake of the woman he loved and her child--he has
spared my life. I have seen the print of his feet where he must have
stood outside in the bitter cold looking in upon my warmth and
comfort. I have found the very weapon with which he would have taken
my life lying at my door where he must have flung it, and I have
traced his steps where he must have fled across the field to hide
himself in the darkness, only to die almost within a stone's-throw of
this house. He had sworn to meet me face to face, and it was to
be--like this! The hand of God was in it. I might have kept silent.
The secret was in my hands alone. No human law could reach me now that
his tongue is silent; but lying there, as he lay yesterday, dead, in
rags, he has spoken as no living man could speak! He has accused and
co