"My darling, I think no woman ever knows how utterly she has given
herself up to the man she loves--until that man has ill-treated her. Can
you pity my weakness if I confess to having felt a pang at my heart
when I read that part of your letter which calls Frank a coward and a
villain? Nobody can despise me for this as I despise myself. I am like a
dog who crawls back and licks the master's hand that has beaten him. But
it is so--I would confess it to nobody but you--indeed, indeed it is
so. He has deceived and deserted me; he has written me a cruel farewell
--but don't call him a villain! If he repented and came back to me, I
would die rather than marry him now--but it grates on me to see that
word coward written against him in your hand! If he is weak of purpose,
who tried his weakness beyond what it could bear? Do you think this
would have happened if Michael Vanstone had not robbed us of our own,
and forced Frank away from me to China? In a week from to-day the year
of waiting would have come to an end, and I should have been Frank's
wife, if my marriage portion had not been taken from me.
"You will say, after what has hap pened, it is well that I have escaped.
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