No one could have known, and he would have died thanking me for one good deed at least.

Yesterday when I failed him for the second time, he made the most horrible confession to me.

He said that when he married me a year ago he knew that this very crisis would come and that he had counted on me then as his deliverer! He actually said to me, Braden, that all this was in his mind when he married me.

Can't you understand?
If the time ever came when he wanted to die, who would be more likely to serve his purpose than the young, avaricious wife who loved another man?
Oh, he was not thinking of your good, my friend,--at least, not entirely.

He did not want you to throw yourself away on me, that's true, but your preservation was not his sole object, let me assure you.