HUGH MURRAY. And I deliberately and dishonestly concealed my knowledge from her. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. For _my_ sake? HUGH MURRAY. No--for the sake of the child you had made your wife. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. My wife. Janet Preece can have her revenge now. My wife--my wife. HUGH MURRAY. The girl left me on your marriage morning upon the understanding that I would write to her. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. Yes. HUGH MURRAY. I did write, the day following, to an address she gave me, in the country. I wrote instructing her to take no steps till she heard from me _a month thence_. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. That is a month ago! HUGH MURRAY. Exactly a month ago. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. What do you intend to do now? HUGH MURRAY. Write to her once more, confessing that I have done nothing, and intend to do nothing to aid her. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. Oh, Murray! HUGH MURRAY. Man, don’t thank me! For the sake of one poor creature, your wife, I have been dishonest to another poor creature, your broken plaything! For one month I have lied for you in act and in spirit. In the race between you and your victim I have given the strong man a month’s start; to her a month of suspense, to you a month of thoughtless happiness. You have taken it, enjoyed it, steeped yourself to the lips in it; and now, from this day, you play the game of your life without a confederate. Our paths divide! DUNSTAN RENSHAW. Murray! Listen to me! You are the only man who may have it in his power to help me! HUGH MURRAY. I have done so--for a month. DUNSTAN RENSHAW. I don’t ask you to pity the girl I have ill-used or the girl I have married--that you must do. But, wretch that I am, you might do a greater injustice than to pity me. HUGH MURRAY. Pity _you_! DUNSTAN RENSHAW. Murray, a month ago I married this child. Perhaps, then, I was really in love with her; I hardly know, for loving had been to me like a tune a man hums for a day and can’t recall a week afterwards. But this I _do_ know--I have grown to love her now with my whole soul! HUGH MURRAY. [_Contemptuously._] Oh! DUNSTAN RENSHAW. I married her, as it were, in darkness; she seemed to take me by the hand and to lead me out into the light. Murray, the companionship of this pure woman is a revelation of life to me! I tell you there are times when she stands before me that I am like a man dazzled and can scarcely look at her without shading my eyes. But _you_ know--because you read my future--_you_ know what my existence has become! The Past has overtaken me! I am in deadly fear! I dread the visit of a stranger, or the sight of strange handwriting, and in my sleep I dream that I am muttering into her ear the truth against myself! And, oh, Murray, there is one thing more that is the rack to me and yet a delight, a paradise and yet a torment, a curse and yet a blessing, my wife--God help me!--my wife thinks me--Good! LESLIE. [_In the garden below._] Dunstan! Dunstan! HUGH MURRAY. Your wife! Be quick! Tell me--how can I help you?