She paused, and answered sullenly, “I had my reasons—Bulmer had treated me with scorn. He told me plainly that he used me but as a stepping-stone to his own purposes: and that these finally centred in wedding Clara. I was resolved he should wed her, and take with her infamy and misery to his bed.”
“This is too horrible,” said Cargill, endeavouring, with a trembling hand, to make minutes of her confession.
“Ay,” said the sick woman, “but I contended with a master of the game, who played me stratagem for stratagem. If I destined for him a dishonoured wife, he contrived by his agent, Solmes, to match me with a husband imposed on me by his devices as a man of fortune,” &c.—Ed.]
GLOSSARY.
A', all.
Abbey, the sanctuary for debtors at Holyrood Abbey.
Ae, one.
Aff, off.