He took this opportunity to say, "You must not fancy
that there is any jealousy or ill feeling after fourteen years'
desertion, but she felt it her duty as a woman--"
"The certificate!" said Mary--"the certificate!"
He showed her the certificate; she read the fatal words, "Walter
Clifford." The rest swam before her eyes, and to her the world seemed at
an end. She heard, as in a dream, the smooth voice of the false accuser,
saying, with a world of fictitious sympathy, "I wish I had never
undertaken this business. Mrs. Walter Clifford doesn't want to distress
you; she only felt it her duty to save you. Don't give way. There is no
great harm done, unless you were to be deluded into marrying him."
"And what then?" inquired Mary, trembling.
Monckton appeared to be agitated at this question.
"Oh, don't speak of it," said he. "You would be ruined for life, and he
would get seven years' penal servitude; and that is a sentence few
gentlemen survive in the present day when prisons are slaughter-houses.
There, I have discharged the most disagreeable office I ever undertook in
my life; but at all events you are warned in time.
Pages:
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321