I suppose this all helped to madden me.

No need to explain why.

You know.
"He had found a letter from you at the _Poste Restante_; but, rushing around to his publishers, etc., had not had time to read it.
"When he remembered it and found it in his pocket-book, he stood with his back to my stove, in great excitement, and tore it open; I sitting by.
"As he unfolded the large sheets of foreign paper, a note flew out from between them, and fell, unseen by him, to the floor.
"I put my foot on it.

I gathered, from extracts he read me from the letter, that this note was of importance.
"When he found in a postscript that you mentioned an enclosure, he hunted everywhere for it; not thinking, of course, to look under my foot.
"He then concluded, on my instigation, that, after all, you had not enclosed any note.
"At the first opportunity I transferred it to my pocket, made an excuse to leave the room, and read it.
"Helen, believe me, had I known beforehand the news that note contained, I don't think I could have been such a fiend.
"But once having done it, I carried it through.

I allowed your husband to go home in total ignorance of the birth of his son.