“See,� he said as he took from his desk a miniature and handed it to Nathan, “was she not beautiful? And that picture was but a poor representation of her, for art cannot produce on ivory the thousand pretty changes of expression which constituted one of the chief charms of her face.�
Nathan looked attentively at the fair, sweet face of the picture, and agreed as to its beauty. The Major continued:
“I met her sternly, and she must have seen in my face something of what I was about to utter, for the smile left her cheeks and gave place to a look of terror indescribable.
“‘Agnes,’ I began, ‘do not dare to face with a smile the husband you have betrayed, wronged, and made a cuckold of in his own house; miserable woman, that should ever have lived to become so low and vile a creature, with so fair a face!’ She gazed at me in fear and horror and I verily believe she for the time thought me insane. She pressed both hands to her heart as though to quiet its fluttering,—ah, God! I can see her yet,—and then gasped, ‘Markham, for Christ’s sake, what do you mean? What, oh! what has happened?’
“I cannot describe accurately the scene which followed. I know I flaunted the letters in her face, I accused her of her treachery, and called her to account in the worst possible terms, such a maddened brute was I, and refused to listen to anything she tried to say in denial or palliation of her guilt.
“She fell on her knees before me, and begged and implored me to listen to her—to believe her. She called on God to witness and attest her innocence. But I mocked at her, and told her that after such conduct as hers had been, a falsehood was as nothing; that I would not believe her if the angel Gabriel came down from heaven to testify in her behalf. I bade her begone from my sight, that I might not so far forget myself as to punish her crime with violence. Then she begged, if she must leave me, that I would let her have the children. Finally, as I remained obdurate, she prayed only for the one little girl, the youngest, three years old—the baby, and most helpless one. The boys might stay with me, but this little one, her baby, she could not give up. She should die without her baby, and she pleaded as only a mother can plead for this one boon, the privilege of caring for her own child, which she had herself brought into this cruel world.�
Here the Major’s voice faltered, and there was a sympathizing moisture in Nathan’s eyes as he continued:
“A shame upon such laws as give any one, even a father, the right to deprive a mother of her God-given privilege!�
“Amen!� said Nathan under his breath.
“Finally I promised her that if at the end of six months I heard no report of her holding any communication with Teasdale I would let the little Eva go to her mother; but if I learned of her seeing or having anything to do with that creature I would never allow the child to even see her. With that she must be content. I had a sort of fiendish delight in the thought that through the mother’s love for her child I might keep her from the arms of her paramour.