'Mat looked utterly miserable; but his wretchedness did not seem to touch me. The sin was his, and he must expiate it; it was I and my children who were the innocent sufferers. He began cursing himself for his mad folly, as he called it, and begged me over and over again to forgive him. I listened to him for a few minutes, and then I looked at him very steadily. '"I will forgive you, Mat, and not say a hard word to you, if you will promise me one thing." '"And what is that?" he asked, seeming as though he dreaded my answer. '"That you will never try to see me or my children again."' CHAPTER XXXIII '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." 'But at the mention of his brother I lost all control over myself. Oh, I know I said some hard things then--I am not defending myself--and he begged me at last very piteously not to excite myself, and he would never mention Tom again; only he must know what I meant to do with myself and the children while he was working out his sentence. '"Then I will tell you," I replied; "for at least you have a right to know that, although from this day I will never acknowledge you as my husband. I will not go near your beggarly relations; but I have a little money of my own, as you know, though you have never been able to touch it. I will manage to keep the children on that."