“I might have been so, but declined; and, believing as I do that you are in the right, you will permit me to hope that you are not unfortunate.”
“The past is dark enough,” said she, “the future is with God alone.”
“Mr. Andrews had a wife living at the time of your marriage with him.”
“The evidence of that fact is in your possession.”
“You received from your mother’s succession fifty thousand dollars, which your late husband squandered.”
“He was imprudent.”
“Of your husband’s first marriage you were ignorant, until after his decease?”
“That knowledge came to me a double sorrow, quick following his death; to me more terrible than death. Now, alone in the world, with none of my blood known to me, I come to you as my defender. The law is a stern master; sometimes blind. If I lose, I lose all, a beggar, with a name suspected, I can do little else than lie down and die!” and she covered her face with her hands, and sobbed aloud.
“Mr. Cornelius is honest,” said I.
“Mr. Cornelius knows not my heart.”