"Stop those wild
words, Dora! Are you mad?"
"No, not yet," she cried; "but this false woman will drive me
so!"
Then Miss Charteris rose, her calm, grand face unruffled, not a
quiver on her proud lips.
"Stay, Miss Charteris, one moment, I pray you," said Ronald,
"while my wife apologizes for her folly."
"It is all true," cried Dora. "She wrote and asked you to meet
her here."
"Dora," said her husband, gravely, "did you read the letter Miss
Charteris wrote to me?"
"I did," she replied.
"And you deliberately came here to listen to what she had to say
to me?" he continued. "You deliberately listened to what you
were never intended to hear?"
His grave, stern dignity calmed her angry passion, and she looked
half-frightened into his quiet white face.
"Answer me!" he said. "Have you crouched behind those trees
deliberately and purposely to listen?
"Yes," she said; "and I would do so again if any one tried to
take my husband from me."
"Then may I be forgiven for the dishonor I have brought to my
name and race!" said Ronald. "May I be forgiven for thinking
such a woman fit to be my wife! Hear me," he continued, and the
passion in his voice changed to contempt: "Miss Charteris is your
friend; she asked me to meet her here that she might plead your
cause, Dora--that she might advise me to remain more at home
with you, to go less into society, to look more at the bright
side of our married life, and be a better husband than I have
been lately; it was for that she summoned me here.
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