“Sewer-gas!” Salome repeated, astonished now in turn. “Yes, my mother wrote to me saying that your health was failing—that sewer-gas had been discovered in the house—that she had begged you to go home with them, and you refused; she said that nothing but a command from me would make you go away. So immediately on receiving this letter, I cabled you to go to the —— Hotel. I mentioned that house, because, knowing you were not strong, I thought you would be more at home than in a large hotel, while I also felt that it might be more agreeable than for you to go to Thirty-fourth Street with my mother and sister. I realized that they were not quite congenial,” Dr. Winthrop explained. “There was no sewer-gas in the house on Madison Avenue,” said Salome, looking blank. “I know it. I examined it thoroughly upon my return,” he briefly replied. “And,” she went on, “I thought the cable message was sent in reply to my letter of confession. Madam, your mother, had accused me of many things; she insisted that I should tell her my whole history; I could not do that, for I had not confided it to you and I felt that you had the first right to my confidence. She told me that my marriage was illegal, because I had withheld my true surname, that I had compromised you and the family, so I resolved to tell you everything, and wrote to you my whole history, begging you to send me but one word, ‘stay’ by cable, to relieve my suspense as to how you would receive my confession. But your message told me to go, and believing that you were ashamed of one who was a fugitive from home and friends—that you had simply married me from a feeling of gratitude, duty, and pity, and now regretted the union, as they said, I resolved that I would not burden you longer. I——” “Salome, you break my heart!” Dr. Winthrop interposed, his pale lips quivering in spite of his manhood. “How could you imagine for one moment that, having deliberately won you to be my wife, I would ever send you away from me or take advantage of a legal flaw? If there had been any such thing in connection with our marriage, it would have been my first care to have righted the wrong or mistake. Even if I had married you from a sense of duty, gratitude or pity—which is absolutely false—I hope there is honor enough in me to have enabled me to stand faithfully by the contract and not take such cowardly advantage of a friendless woman.” “Oh!” gasped unhappy Salome, who began to realize how rashly and foolishly she had acted—how, perhaps, after all, she had been her own worst enemy, “I ought to have thought of that; but I did not, there were so many things which seemed to confirm what they told me.” “You spoke of a letter of confession,” her husband resumed. “I never received such a letter; it must have miscarried, or else——” He broke off hastily, but the suspicion which flashed into his mind was very near the truth. Salome lifted a surprised look to his face.