“I was telegraphed for, and reached him in time to have him die in my arms, but he never recognized me.
“When he was dead I found that he had left his own small fortune to me, but his share in the income of the estate did not become mine.
“I have been advised that I have a right to it, but to get it would mean a lawsuit, and I am comfortable and in plenty without it.
“Now, then; at the time of my marriage there was a man, Eric Masson, moving in the same club and social circle with my husband, who, while pretending to be on friendly terms with him, was his bitter enemy.
“He wanted to marry me. From the first I had disliked him. It was not indifference to him; it was positive dislike for him on my part.
“I had rejected him before I met Mr. Constant. When he learned that Mr. Constant was attentive to me, and that I was likely to marry, Masson warned me not to do it, saying it would be well for neither Albert nor myself.
“He circulated stories as to myself, which had much to do with my husband’s family’s opposition, and one of them reaching my husband’s ears, who was then my fiancée, resulted in a violent quarrel between the two, ending in Albert giving Masson a thrashing.
“Though the differences were afterward healed, I know that he worked to my husband’s injury always.
“Masson was one of the party with whom my husband dined on his last day.
“My husband had not been dead two months when he renewed his attentions to me, declaring that he had been waiting for Albert’s death to step into his shoes.