treating me like a child.

He followed me. Putting one hand heavily on my shoulder, he forced me to
face him once more.

"Listen to this," he said. "What I am now going to say to you I say for
the first and last time. Valeria! if you ever discover what I am
now keeping from your knowledge--from that moment you live a life of
torture; your tranquillity is gone. Your days will be days of terror;
your nights will be full of horrid dreams--through no fault of mine,
mind! through no fault of mine! Every day of your life you will feel
some new distrust, some growing fear of me, and you will be doing me the
vilest injustice all the time. On my faith as a Christian, on my honor
as a man, if you stir a step further in this matter, there is an end to
your happiness for the rest of your life! Think seriously of what I have
said to you; you will have time to reflect. I am going to tell my friend
that our plans for the Mediterranean are given up. I shall not be
back before the evening." He sighed, and looked at me with unutterable
sadness. "I love you, Valeria," he said. "In spite of all that has
passed, as God is my witness, I love you more dearly than ever."

So he spoke. So he left me.

I must write the truth about myself, however strange it may appear. I
don't pretend to be able to analyze my own motives; I don't pretend even
to guess how other women might have acted in my place. It is true of me,
that my husband's terrible warning--all the more terrible in its mystery
and its vagueness--produced no deterrent effect on my mind: it only
stimulated my resolution to discover what he was hiding from me. He
had not been gone two minutes before I rang the bell and ordered the
carriage, to take me to Major Fitz-David's house in Vivian Place.

Walking to and fro while I was waiting--I was in such a fever of
excitement that it was impossible for me to sit still--I accidentally
caught sight of myself in the glass.

My own face startled me, it looked so haggard and so wild. Could I
present myself to a stranger, could I hope to produce the necessary
impression in my favor, looking as I looked at that moment? For all I
knew to the contrary, my whole future might depend upon the effect which
I produced on Major Fitz-David at first sight. I rang the bell again,
and sent a message to one of the chambermaids to follow me to my room.

I had no maid of my own with me: the stewardess of the yacht would
have acted as my attendant if we had he