I do not mean to harm you--mark
me now--you are not his wife. When I make my story known you will be
so, neither in the eye of God nor of man; you must leave this house
upon to-morrow; let the world know that your husband has another wife
living; go, you, into retirement, and leave him to justice, which will
surely overtake him. If you remain in this house after to-morrow you
will reap the bitter fruits of your sin," so saying, she quitted the
room, leaving me very little disposed to sleep.
Here was food for my very worst and most terrible suspicions; still
there was not enough to remove all doubt. I had no proof of the truth
of this woman's statement. Taken by itself there was nothing to induce
me to attach weight to it; but when I viewed it in connection with the
extraordinary mystery of some of Lord Glenfallen's proceedings, his
strange anxiety to exclude me from certain portions of the mansion,
doubtless, lest I should encounter this person--the strong influence,
nay, command, which she possessed over him, a circumstance clearly
established by the very fact of her residing in the very place, where
of all others, he should least have desired to find her--her thus
acting, and continuing to act in direct contradiction to his wishes;
when, I say, I viewed her disclosure in connection with all these
circumstances, I could not help feeling that there was at least a
fearful verisimilitude in the allegations which she had made.
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