"Anna! how came you here?—how long have you been here?" he finally found voice to say.
"Long enough to learn of the contemptible perfidy and meanness of the man whom, for twenty years, I have trusted," she panted, but the tone was so hollow he never would have known who was speaking had he not seen her.
He opened his dry lips to make some reply; but no sound came from them.
He put out his hand to support himself by the back of her chair, for all his strength and sense seemed on the point of failing him; while for the moment he felt as if he could almost have been grateful to any one who would slay him where he stood, and thus put him out of his misery—benumb his sense of degradation and the remorse which he experienced for his wasted life, and the wrongs of which he had been guilty.
But, by a powerful effort, he soon mastered himself, for he was anxious to escape from the house before the presence of his wife should be discovered.
"Come, Anna," he said; "let us go home, where we can talk over this matter by ourselves, without the fear of being overheard."
He attempted to assist her to rise, but she shrank away from him with a gesture of aversion, at the same time flashing a look up at him that almost seemed to curdle his blood, and sent a shudder of dread over him.
"Do not dare to touch me!" she cried, hoarsely. "Go—call a carriage; I am not able to walk. Go; I will follow you."
Without a word, he turned to obey her, and passed quickly out of the suite without encountering any one, she following, but with a gait so unsteady that any one watching her would have been tempted to believe her under the influence of some intoxicant.
Mr. Goddard found a carriage standing near the entrance to the hotel, and they were soon on their way home.