ould not marry her. Of course he might write to
her;--but when summoned to her presence he would be unable to excuse
himself, even to himself, for not going. It was his misfortune,--and
also his fault,--that he had submitted to be loved by a wild cat.

But it might be well that before he saw her he should get hold of
information that might have the appearance of real evidence. He
returned from Liverpool to London on the morning of the Friday on
which the Board was held, and thought even more of all this than he
did of the attack which he was prepared to make on Mr Melmotte. If he
could come across that traveller he might learn something. The
husband's name had been Caradoc Carson Hurtle. If Caradoc Carson
Hurtle had been seen in the State of Kansas within the last two years,
that certainly would be sufficient evidence. As to the duel he felt
that it might be very hard to prove that, and that if proved, it might
be hard to found upon the fact any absolute right on his part to
withdraw from the engagement. But there was a rumour also, though not
corroborated during his last visit to Liverpool, that she had shot a
gentleman in Oregon. Could he get at the truth of that story? If they
were all true, surely he could justify himself to himself.

But this detective's work was very distasteful to him. After having
had the woman in his arms how could he undertake such inquiries as
these? And it would be almost necessary that he should take her in his
arms again while he was making them,--unless indeed he made them with
her knowledge. Was it not his duty, as a man, to tell everything to
herself? To speak to her thus:--'I am told that your life with your last
husband was, to say the least of it, eccentric; that you even fought a
duel with him. I could not marry a woman who had fought a duel,--
certainly not a woman who had fought with her own husband. I am told
also that you shot another gentleman in Oregon. It may well be that
the gentleman deserved to be shot; but there is something in the deed
so repulsive to me,--no doubt irrationally,--that, on that score also, I
must decline to marry you. I am told also that Mr Hurtle has been seen
alive quite lately. I had understood from you that he is dead. No
doubt you may have been deceived. But as I should not have engaged
myself to you had I known the truth, so now I consider myself
justified in absolving myself from an engagement which was based on a
misconception.' It would no doubt