"But my own husband! Him whom I so passionately loved!"
"And who so passionately loved you! It was because of that that the lie has so rankled! And, Cecilia, dear, let us be altogether open to each other."
"I have concealed nothing from you," said Mrs. Western proudly.
"Nor wilfully from him. But you had kept from him a detail of your past life,—of your life not long since past, which, as you yourself felt, ought to have been made known to him."
"It would have been made known to him."
"Just so. But unfortunately he was first allowed to hear it from another quarter. How it was told from thence you and I do not know."
"I saw the letter to him from Sir Francis Geraldine. There was no such statement in it as that you have now made. The tone of the letter was ungentlemanlike and abominable; but the facts as declared were true."
"Do you believe then that he has invented this falsehood against you, to excuse himself?"
"No," said the deserted wife; "I do not think he invented it."
"Nor I. How was it then that the idea has made its way into his brain?"