In offering this book to you, I have no Preface to write. I have only to request that you will bear in mind certain established truths, which occasionally escape your memory when you are reading a wor...

“For after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands; even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose dau...

“For after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands; even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose dau...

We had been traveling for a little more than an hour when a change passed insensibly over us both. Still sitting close together, with my hand in his, with my head on his shoulder, little by little we ...

Eustace succeeded in quieting my alarm. But I can hardly say that he succeeded in satisfying my mind as well. He had been thinking, he told me, of the contrast between his past and his present life. B...

Left by ourselves, there was a moment of silence among us. Eustace spoke first. “Are you able to walk back?” he said to me. “Or shall we go on to Broadstairs, and return to Ramsgate by the railway?” H...

I sat down, and tried to compose my spirits. Now or never was the time to decide what it was my duty to my husband and my duty to myself to do next. The effort was beyond me. Worn out in mind and body...

Fortunately for me, the landlord did not open the door when I rang. A stupid maid-of-all-work, who never thought of asking me for my name, let me in. Mrs. Macallan was at home, and had no visitors wit...

“Yes,” said Benjamin. “It is a coincidence certainly. Still⁠—” He stopped and looked at me. He seemed a little doubtful how I might receive what he had it in his mind to say to me next. “Go on,” I sai...

I find it impossible to describe my sensations while the carriage was taking me to Major Fitz-David’s house. I doubt, indeed, if I really felt or thought at all, in the true sense of those words. From...

Major Fitz-David’s visitor proved to be a plump, round-eyed overdressed girl, with a florid complexion and straw colored hair. After first fixing on me a broad stare of astonishment, she pointedly add...

The fire burning in the grate was not a very large one; and the outer air (as I had noticed on my way to the house) had something of a wintry sharpness in it that day. Still, my first feeling, when Ma...

My first remembrance when I began to recover my senses was the remembrance of pain⁠—agonizing pain, as if every nerve in my body were being twisted and torn out of me. My whole being writhed and quive...

We walked to the far end of the hall. Major Fitz-David opened the door of a long, narrow room built out at the back of the house as a smoking-room, and extending along one side of the courtyard as far...

My first impulse was the reckless impulse to follow Eustace⁠—openly through the streets. The Major and Benjamin both opposed this hasty resolution on my part. They appealed to my own sense of self-res...

Thus far I have written of myself with perfect frankness, and, I think I may fairly add, with some courage as well. My frankness fails me and my courage fails me when I look back to my husband’s farew...

Let me confess another weakness, on my part, before I begin the story of the trial. I cannot prevail upon myself to copy, for the second time, the horrible title page which holds up to public ignominy...

Let me confess another weakness, on my part, before I begin the story of the trial. I cannot prevail upon myself to copy, for the second time, the horrible title page which holds up to public ignominy...

The proceedings began at ten o’clock. The prisoner was placed at the bar, before the High Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh. He bowed respectfully to the bench, and pleaded Not Guilty, in a low voice....

The evidence of the doctors and the chemists closed the proceedings on the first day of the trial. On the second day the evidence to be produced by the prosecution was anticipated with a general feeli...

The first question (did the woman die poisoned?) had been answered, positively. The second question (who poisoned her?) had been answered, apparently. There now remained the third and final question⁠—...

The feeling of interest excited by the trial was prodigiously increased on the fourth day. The witnesses for the defense were now to be heard, and first and foremost among them appeared the prisoner’s...

The calling of the new witness provoked a burst of laughter among the audience due partly, no doubt, to the strange name by which he had been summoned; partly, also, to the instinctive desire of all c...

In the gray light of the new morning I closed the report of my husband’s trial for the murder of his first wife. No sense of fatigue overpowered me. I had no wish, after my long hours of reading and t...

As I opened the dining-room door the Major hastened to meet me. He looked the brightest and the youngest of living elderly gentlemen, with his smart blue frock-coat, his winning smile, his ruby ring, ...

I took a chair at a respectful distance from the sofa on which Mrs. Macallan seated herself. The old lady smiled, and beckoned to me to take my place by her side. Judging by appearances, she had certa...

We had dawdled over our luncheon before Mrs. Macallan arrived at Benjamin’s cottage. The ensuing conversation between the old lady and myself (of which I have only presented a brief abstract) lasted u...

Thoroughly disheartened and disgusted, and (if I must honestly confess it) thoroughly frightened too, I whispered to Mrs. Macallan, “I was wrong, and you were right. Let us go.” The ears of Miserrimus...

Ariel was downstairs in the shadowy hall, half asleep, half awake, waiting to see the visitors clear of the house. Without speaking to us, without looking at us, she led the way down the dark garden w...

I found all the idle boys in the neighborhood collected around the pony-chaise, expressing, in the occult language of slang, their high enjoyment and appreciation at the appearance of “Ariel” in her m...

With such a man as Miserrimus Dexter, and with such a purpose as I had in view, no half-confidences were possible. I must either risk the most unreserved acknowledgment of the interests that I really ...

A little interval of solitude was a relief to me, as well as to Miserrimus Dexter. Startling doubts beset me as I walked restlessly backward and forward, now in the anteroom, and now in the corridor o...

I started to my feet, and looked at Miserrimus Dexter. I was too much agitated to be able to speak to him. My utmost expectations had not prepared me for the tone of absolute conviction in which he ha...

The days that elapsed before Major Fitz-David’s dinner-party were precious days to me. My long interview with Miserrimus Dexter had disturbed me far more seriously than I suspected at the time. It was...

The scene must follow my erratic movements⁠—the scene must close on London for a while, and open in Edinburgh. Two days had passed since Major Fitz-David’s dinner-party. I was able to breathe again fr...

The incomprehensible submission of Scotchmen to the ecclesiastical tyranny of their established church has produced⁠—not unnaturally, as I think⁠—a very mistaken impression of the national character i...

I found Benjamln at the hotel, poring over a cheap periodical; absorbed in guessing one of the weekly “Enigmas” which the Editor presented to his readers. My old friend was a great admirer of these ve...

We reached London between eight and nine in the evening. Strictly methodical in all his habits, Benjamin had telegraphed to his housekeeper, from Edinburgh, to have supper ready for us by ten o’clock,...

I passed a sleepless night. The outrage that had been offered to me was bad enough in itself. But consequences were associated with it which might affect me more seriously still. In so far as the atta...

Before she had uttered a word, I saw in my mother-in-law’s face that she brought bad news. “Eustace?” I said. She answered me by a look. “Let me hear it at once!” I cried. “I can bear anything but sus...

If I had been traveling homeward in my own carriage, the remaining chapters of this narrative would never have been written. Before we had been an hour on the road I should have called to the driver, ...

“I declare to Heaven, Valeria, I believe that monster’s madness is infectious⁠—and you have caught it!” This was Benjamin’s opinion of me (on my safe arrival at the villa) after I had announced my int...

The gardener opened the gate to us on this occasion. He had evidently received his orders in anticipation of my arrival. “Mrs. Valeria?” he asked. “Yes.” “And friend?” “And friend.” “Please to step up...

By that night’s post⁠—although I was far from being fit to make the exertion⁠—I wrote to Mr. Playmore, to tell him what had taken place, and to beg for his earliest assistance and advice. The notes in...

The same evening I received my “abstract” by the hands of a clerk. It was an intensely characteristic document. My expenses were remorselessly calculated downward to shillings and even to pence; and o...

My letter from Mr. Playmore, enclosing the agent’s extraordinary telegram, was not inspired by the sanguine view of our prospects which he had expressed to me when we met at Benjamin’s house. “If the ...

It is not to be disguised or denied that my spirits were depressed on my journey to London. To resign the one cherished purpose of my life, when I had suffered so much in pursuing it, and when I had (...

My head turned giddy. I was obliged to wait and let my overpowering agitation subside, before I could read any more. Looking at the letter again, after an interval, my eyes fell accidentally on a sent...

“Take care, Valeria!” said Mrs. Macallan. “I ask you no questions; I only caution you for your own sake. Eustace has noticed what I have noticed⁠—Eustace has seen a change in you. Take care!” So my mo...

Gleninch, October 19, 18⁠—. My husband⁠— I have something very painful to tell you about one of your oldest friends. You have never encouraged me to come to you with any confidences of mine. If you ha...

As soon as I could dry my eyes and compose my spirits after reading the wife’s pitiable and dreadful farewell, my first thought was of Eustace⁠—my first anxiety was to prevent him from ever reading wh...

I write from memory, unassisted by notes or diaries; and I have no distinct recollection of the length of our residence abroad. It certainly extended over a period of some months. Long after Eustace w...

In ten days more we returned to England, accompanied by Benjamin. Mrs. Macallan’s house in London offered us ample accommodation. We gladly availed ourselves of her proposal, when she invited us to st...

Note by Mr. Playmore: The greatest difficulties of reconstruction occurred in this first portion of the torn letter. In the fourth paragraph from the beginning we have been obliged to supply lost word...