“Her husband,” she said, “was an agent of a lower stamp than this gentleman--of a much lower stamp; and what was worse, he did not confine himself to this; but he cheated at cards, and expected her now and then to assist in plucking young men whom they met by accident at a friend’s in the West End, where Macshawser was an occasional visitor. Her husband had gone there now to dinner, and she was ordered to attend at eight o’clock. And then the tears rolled down her cheek, and I felt that I could have laid my life down for her.” “Yes, yes--we are all alike,” said Mr. Williamson; “those cursed tears, they make fools of us all.” “Then she asked me if I did not truly pity her, and from that we got to a mutual confession of love. She knew it was wicked, and she had tried to fight against it, she said; but she loved me with all her heart, because I had had pity on her, and had loved her as a woman should be loved before I had known she was married. We set to thinking what we should do under the circumstances, but all that I could think of was that she must get away from this fiend, her husband.” “How came she to marry him? Did she not tell you that?” asked the barrister. “Not at that time, but she has told me all her history since. I went to see her the next evening at the same hour, and found her pale and ill, and unlike herself. She had had a violent quarrel with her husband, who had subjected her to gross insult on the previous night; she had refused to go out this evening, and I stayed with her until late, and tried to cheer her. We talked of Severntown, and of her childhood. She never remembered her mother; she had always understood that her mother died when she was but a child. She dare not tell me, she said, how her younger life had been spent, lest I should despise her; but she would tell me by-and-by. The more she said to prevent me from loving her, the more my sympathies were excited, and I laid down a plan whereby she should leave her husband the next day, if she would.” “Rash--rash boy!” exclaimed Mr. Williamson. “I know it. I felt afterwards, in sober moments, that I had behaved most foolishly, but I could not help it. The next morning twice the money I wanted reached me from Barton Hall, and this determined my course of action.” “Why did you not tell me of it at the time?”