There were but few servants.

No fire-engines were near, for the Grange was in a remote place, and so the fire soon gained headway and swept over all.

My wife was frantic.
She came to me as I stood looking at the spectacle, and charged me with setting fire to it.

I smiled at her, but made no reply.
"So you see she was burned out, and that question was settled.

It was a terrible thing, but desperate diseases require desperate remedies; and I felt it more tolerable to have the house in ruins than to have her living there while I had to be a wanderer.
"She was now at my mercy.