_That_
broke down my powers of resistance in some directions, I had so much to
resist in others."

"Do you see what o'clock it is?" I asked.

"Yes; but if you do not mind the sitting up, let's make a night of it. I
feel as if I could not sleep--as if something were going to happen."

Very cheerfully I consented to the proposed vigil. I wanted to hear the
rest of the story; and I knew she had a sort of prophetic consciousness
of coming events. If she said "something was going to happen," something
surely did happen. So the fire was renewed, and we settled ourselves
again for "a night of it.

"What did you do? and why do you say that you committed a fatal error by
keeping silence?"

"By suffering the matter to rest, I unfortunately fixed myself in the
situation I would have avoided. My object was what yours would have
been, or any woman's--to save all scandal, until the facts were known to
a certainty. I was so sensitive about being talked over; and besides
felt that I had no right to expose Mr. Seabrook to a slanderous
accusation. It was not possible for me to have foreseen what actually
happened.

"I took one night to think the matter over. It was a longer night than
this one will seem to you. My decision was to write to the postmaster of
the town from which Mr. Seabrook was said to come. _Now_ that would be a
simple affair enough; the telegraph would procure us the information
wanted in a day. _Then_ a letter was five or six months going and
coming. In the meantime I had resolved not to live with Mr. Seabrook as
his wife; but you will see how I would, under the circumstances, be
compelled to seem to do so. I did not think of that at first, however.
You know how you mentally go over impending scenes beforehand? I meant
to surprise him into a confession, if he were guilty; and believed I
should be able to judge of his innocence, if he should be wrongly
accused. I wrote and dispatched my letter at once, and under an assumed
name, to prevent its being stolen. When that was done I tried to rest
unconcerned; but, of course, that was impossible. My mind ran on this
subject day and night.

"The difficulties of my position could never be imagined; you would have
to be in the same place to see them. Everybody now called me Mrs.
Seabrook, and I could not repudiate the name without sufficient cause. I
was forced to appear to have confidence in the man I had married of my
own free will. Besides, I really did not know, of a