She remembered that first warning, that letter in which Susan had written, "I'll stand as fairy godmother to your baby," underlining the ominous sentence. These words seemed now full of fearful meaning; they were never out of her mind; and she could always see them before her standing out in characters of blood. "She is capable even of that," she thought with horror, as the idea of a fiendish revenge occurred to her.
Shortly before her confinement, she suffered from an extreme agitation. She felt that the whole world was about to slip away from her. "And what will happen to my baby," she said to herself, "if I go mad and cannot protect it? No! I must not go mad! O God! give me strength against madness. She will take my innocent babe away if I am not there to watch."
In her fear for her unborn child, she thought of breaking her oath and telling her husband all; then she reflected that to do this would be of no avail. What could she tell him?—that the Secret Society to which she had belonged had been formed for a certain object; that the Society had broken up. That was all—what definite accusation could she make against anyone? She had no reason for imagining that Susan Riley was plotting her destruction, except that a strong, instinctive voice told her so. If she confided this to her husband, he would merely regard her dread as a species of insane delusion. No! better far to preserve her secret, and endeavour to shield her child by other means.
So one night she came up to the chair on which her husband was sitting, and placing herself at his feet, she seized his hands and looked earnestly into his face.
"Harry!" she said, "I have something very important to ask you."
"What is it, my pet?"
"You will not laugh at me or think me foolish?"
"Why, Mary! you know I will not do so, especially when your poor little face looks so serious as it does now."
"Yes! but, Harry," she persisted, "I know you will think me foolish; you will imagine that I have got some delusion into my head when you hear what I have to say."
"Well, let us hear what it is, darling," he said, kissing her.