Ah, it was not altogether a disadvantage to be and look so young! And when she should find herself dying, or so near it that there would not be time to send for Edward, she would tell some one who she really was, and ask that a letter should be written to him telling of her death, so that he would know he wus free to marry again.
Marry again! The thought of that shook her resolution for a moment.

It was torture to imagine the love and caresses that had been hers lavished upon another woman.
But, perhaps, after his unhappy experience of married life, he would choose to live single the rest of his days.

He had his mother and sisters to love, and could be happy without a wife.
Besides, she had read somewhere that though love was everything to a woman, men were different and could do quite well without it.
She went into the dressing-room, turned up the night lamp, and looked at her watch.
It was one o'clock.

At two a stage passed northward along a road on the farther side of Fairview.

She could easily make her few preparations in half an hour, walk to the nearest point on the route of the stage in time to stop it and get in, then while journeying on, decide what her next step should be.
She packed a hand-bag with such things as she deemed most essential, arrayed herself in a plain, dark woollen dress, with hat, veil, and gloves to match, threw a shawl over her arm, and was just turning to go, when a thought struck her.
"I ought to leave a note, of course; they always do." Sitting down at her writing-desk, she directed an envelope to her husband, then wrote on a card: "I am going away never to come back.