“Mother,” he interrupted, with more impatience than she had known him to betray for years, “why will you not leave me alone? you drive me desperate. Oh, do what you please—settle everything as you choose, only don’t keep constantly harping upon the subject,” and with this he abruptly left her presence, but his white pained face haunted her long afterward. He accompanied the party to Paris, where he made every provision for their comfort on their journey, and then bade them farewell; but there was not one whit more of warmth in his adieus to his _fiancée_ than to any other member of the party; indeed, there was far more of love and sympathy in the silent handclasp which he gave his brother. He was greatly relieved when they were gone and he was free to go back to his study and his practice, into which he threw himself with all the earnestness he could arouse, to drown his misery and keep him from thinking of the dreaded fate awaiting him. Madame Winthrop and Mrs. Rochester, on the other hand, were highly elated as they went southward. Madam had communicated the good news of her son’s concession to her friend and they proceeded to hold him to his promise by at once laying their plans for a brilliant wedding in Rome. Mrs. Rochester was troubled at times with fears that the divorce papers might not arrive in season; but as the weeks passed and they did not—though the lawyer wrote that he should soon have them—she tried to comfort herself by reasoning that it would not matter much if they did not, since no one could ever suspect that Salome was living, while she was so securely shut away in that mad-house in Paris. Before she had married Mr. Rochester she had been a poor woman toiling for her daily bread as a clerk in the post-office department in Washington. She was handsome, and attractive and Mr. Rochester had fallen in love with her, asked her to become his wife, and promised to settle fifty thousand dollars upon her. He did not do this, however, but kept putting it off, on one pretext or another, until his death, when, to her excessive rage, she found that he had only added a codicil to his will, leaving the money to her conditionally. She had been the mistress of Mr. Rochester’s elegant home, and had command of a liberal income for more than ten years, and the thought that she might some day be deprived of the luxuries which she had so long enjoyed, filled her with consternation. Not being over-scrupulous as to ways and means, she determined to stop at nothing to carry out the conditions of the will, and secure to herself an independent fortune. Now, everything seemed to indicate that all her hopes would be realized, and she lent herself to all Madame Winthrop’s plans with the greatest heartiness. They agreed that nothing should be said about the engagement in Rome, until Dr. Winthrop should arrive, and then they would hasten the wedding with all possible dispatch.