'SHALL YOU TELL HIM TO-NIGHT?'
| 'Wouldst thou do harm, and still unharmed thyself abide? None struck another yet, except through his own side. ****** From our ill-ordered hearts we oft are fain to roam, As men go forth who find unquietness at home.' Trench. |
Michael raised his eyes and looked attentively at the woman before him; but she did not seem to notice him—she was too much absorbed in her miserable recital.
'I had made up my mind to say this to him from the moment I heard he was in prison—he should have nothing more to do with me and the children. It was for their sake I said it.
'He shrank back as though I had stabbed him, and then he began reproaching me in the old way: "I had never loved him; from the first I had helped to ruin him by my coldness; he was the most wretched man on earth, for his own wife had deserted him;" but after a time I stopped him.
'"It is too late to say all this now, Mat; you are quite right—I never loved you. I was mad to marry you; we have never been suited to each other."
'"But I was fond of you. I was always fond of you, Olive."
'But I answered him sternly:
'"Then prove your affection, Mat, by setting me free. Let me go my way and you go yours, for as truly as I stand here I will never live with you again."
'"But what will you do?" he asked; "oh, Olive, do not be so cruelly hard! There is Tom; he will take you and the children, and care for you all."