Finally the man lifted his bowed head and observed in a hollow tone and with a look of utter hopelessness:
"Very well, Nell, it will have to be as you say; but no breath of shame from the world shall ever touch either of you—I could not bear that. I know I deserve my punishment, and I bow to the inevitable. You shall have Minnie—I relinquish her to you—and you shall go where you will; or, if you prefer to remain here in Washington, I will go to the ends of the earth, on some plausible errand, and you shall never hear of me again.
"Now"—rising feebly and holding onto the back of his chair, while he gazed on her with the look of one whose heart was breaking—"arrange everything to suit yourself. I will not lay a straw in your way, and you shall have all the money you want."
He tottered from the room, groping his way down-stairs and walking like one who has been stricken blind, sought the library, and locked himself in to keep out intruders, while trying to face a future which did not seem to have a single ray of hope to make it worth the living.
There they found him five hours later, sitting before his desk, his head bowed upon his outstretched arms, unconscious and almost rigid.
The butler, desiring some instructions regarding certain orders his master had given him, rapped upon the door for admission; but, after repeated attempts, receiving no answer, he had gone out upon the veranda and entered the room by a window, to find the occupant of the room in the condition described.
He was borne to his room and the family physician summoned, when the attack was pronounced an apoplectic stroke.
He recovered consciousness after a few days, but could move neither hand nor foot, while the verdict of the doctors was that his days, even his hours, were numbered.
When this was made known to Mrs. Temple she seemed to become like one petrified. She sat motionless and speechless for several minutes; then she burst into a passion of weeping, so violent in her utter abandonment to her overwhelming grief that she was utterly prostrated by it; the flood-gates that had hitherto been held back by an almost indomitable will and pride were lifted, and all her pent-up sorrow and shame were let loose.
When the storm finally spent itself she slept from sheer exhaustion, and did not wake for several hours. Then she was calm, and once more mistress of herself, and clothing herself in soft, noiseless garments, she went directly to her husband, a chastened look on her face, an air of gentleness and resignation in her bearing that hitherto had been wholly foreign to her.