"Your silence is an insult!" "My silence is a confession," he answered, sadly.

"_She_ may accept your mercy--I may not even hope for it." Something in the tone of his voice reminded her of past days--the days of perfect love and perfect confidence, when she had been the one woman in the world to him.

Dearly treasured remembrances of her married life filled her heart with tenderness, and dimmed with tears the angry light that had risen in her eyes.

There was no pride, no anger, in his wife when she spoke to him now.
"Oh, my husband, has she taken your love from me ?" "Judge for yourself, Catherine, if there is no proof of my love for you in what I have resisted--and no remembrance of all that I owe to you in what I have confessed." She ventured a little nearer to him.

"Can I believe you ?" "Put me to the test." She instantly took him at his word.