"And he explained to you that for him the jest had become an earnest purpose?"
He spoke quietly, as though he were a judge sifting evidence.
"Yes, but when I accused him of having admitted to those—men, less than a month before the wedding-day, that he only sought to win the wager, he could not deny it."
"And then you cast him off?"
"I told him I would never see him again."
"And he—what became of him? Ah yes, you told me, he dragged your name before a public meeting, he fell down drunk on the platform at a public meeting—and then he committed suicide."
"Yes." She shuddered as she spoke; she never felt the tragedy of the circumstance as she felt it now.
"And before the day fixed for your wedding, you promised never to marry another man?"
"Yes."
"And that is the reason why you have never married?"