Maria and I
have been turning over in our minds all sorts of plans to get you away
till this has blown over--call it going to the seaside, to the country with
Arthur--any thing, in short, just that you may leave Avonsbridge."
"I leave Avonsbridge? Why?"
"Yon know why. When you had a lover before your marriage, of
whom you did not tell your husband or his friends--when this
gentleman afterward meets you, writes to you--I saw the letter--"
"You saw the letter!"
There was no hope. She was hunted down, as many an innocent person
has been before now, by a combination of evidence, half truths, half
lies, or truths so twisted that they assume the aspect of lies, and lies so
exceedingly probable that they are by even keen observers mistaken for
truth. Passive and powerless Christian sat. Miss Gascoigne might say
what she would--all Avonsbridge might say what it would--she would
never open her lips more.
At that moment, to preserve her from going mad--(she felt as if she
were--as if the whole world were whirling round, and God had
forgotten her)--Dr. Grey walked in.
"Oh, husband! save me from her--save me--save me!" she shrieked
again and again. And without one thought except that he was there--
her one protector, defender, and stay--she sprang to him, and clung
desperately to his breast.
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