The result would be an abhorrence of self,
a detestation of the participant in her sin, a belief that the blood of
her husband was upon her head, and a long train of evils which would
seriously impair, if not wholly destroy, the desired serenity of her
life. Was there any way to prevent the birth of such a suspicion?

Yes; there was a way. As soon as Randolph had worked it out he felt as
if an enormous load had been removed from him. His eyes shone brightly,
his cheeks were flushed, and a look of pride and triumph lighted up his
face.

He returned to his chair, removed the revolver from his pocket, and
laid it on the table; wrote his wife an affectionate letter, in which
he told her that he had just become aware of an incurable ailment which
he had not the courage to face through months or years of suffering,
and begged her to look to Stockton for friendship and advice; wrote to
Stockton, charging him with her protection; burned the last will that
he had made and drew a new one, in which he left them the property
jointly, on condition that they marry within two years. Then, with a
perfectly clear head, he laid down his pen and sighed, but his face was
bright and tranquil. He picked up the revolver, cocked it, placed the
muzzle against his temple, and without the tremor of a nerve he pressed
the trigger.

A Story Told by the Sea

One night, when the storm had come up from the south, apparently for
the sole purpose of renewing war with its old enemy, the Peninsula of
Monterey, I left the ancient town, crossed the neck of the peninsula,
and descended on the other side of the Santa Lucia slope to see the
mighty battle on Carmel Bay. The tearing wind, which, charged with
needles of rain, assailed me sharply, did nobler work with the ocean
and the cypresses, sending the one upon a riotous course and rending
the other with groans. I arrived upon a cliff just beyond a pebbly
beach, and with bared head and my waistcoat open, stood facing the
ocean and the storm. It was not a cold night, though a winter storm was
at large; but it was a night of blind agonies and struggles, in which a
mad wind lashed the sea and a maddened sea assailed the shore, while a
flying rain and a drenching spray dimmed the sombre colors of the
scene. It was a night for the sea to talk in its travail and yield up
some of its mysteries.

I left the cliff and went a little distance to the neighborhood of a
Chinese fishing-station, where there