“Many relatives that I had neither seen nor heard of attended the funeral. When the procession was forming to leave the house my attention was attracted to a beautiful woman, who had a little girl with her. She was an earnest mourner; it seemed almost impossible for her to give up her dear aunt to the relentless hand of death. She moaned and sobbed so pitifully as the casket was borne from the house that I thought to lead her; she leaned heavily on my arm and we slowly followed the form we loved so well and sadly watched the pall bearers as they placed the black case in the sombre vehicle. Then the carriages, which were silently waiting, began to draw up to the curbing as the huge burial car moved away. One, two, three handsomely groomed teams stopped, until the curtained doors of the carriages to which they were hitched closed with a muffled sound, when they would slowly walk away as though they understood they were to make room for the next. “The fourth carriage halted; the attentive assistant opened the door and the lady I was supporting moved toward it, leading the little girl with her. “‘Would you mind letting this lady ride with you?’ asked the undertaker, with a bow. “For the first time she looked at me and seemed to recognize me as the woman whom she had seen in charge of affairs in the house when she had first arrived. “‘No,’ she said, with a toss of her head, ‘I don’t care to take any servants in with me.’ “I watched the streets and boulevards for months before I again set eyes on that turnout; when I did it was but a matter of inquiry to find out it was the private equipage of Mrs. R. Sunderman. “I had reached the stage of desperation, where I was ready to do anything but one thing, and that was to die. I wanted to live long enough to impress upon her mind who I was. It was while in this frame of mind that I met my husband. I had lost all respect for myself; I had reached that stage of degradation which is worse than to resolve to take one’s life. I had decided to sell my soul in order to have sufficient funds to at some time humiliate this woman who had refused to carry me in her carriage, which should have been mine. I went to a house of bad repute to apply for admission; while talking to the proprietress a man came in. He signified a desire to talk to me, and we left the place together. He was only a poor man, but his soul contains some of the rarest qualities of manliness that has ever been discovered in the human race. In ten days we were married. I did not love him, but he offered me and my boy a home. He asked no questions but, as he said, took it for granted that I was as good as himself; I have never loved him with that pure, unselfish love which is so essential to real happiness, but he has been good to me and I have done my duty.” “But what about your first—er—Mr. Sunderman, I mean?”