Will you forgive me?"
There was a new tone in his voice, a tone which no woman could
hear without emotion.
"You had other things to think of," she said, and her lips trembled.
Never have I seen on the human face a more beautiful expression than
I saw on hers at that moment; nor do I think Mr. Jeffrey had either,
for as he marked it his own regard softened almost to tenderness.
The major had no time for sentimentalities. Turning to Mr. Jeffrey,
he said:
"One more question before we send for the letter which you say will
give us full insight into your wife's crime. Do you remember what
occurred on the bridge at Georgetown just before you came into town
that night?"
He shook his head.
"Did you meet any one there?"
"I do not know."
"Can you remember your state of mind?"
"I was facing the future."
"And what did you see in the future?"
"Death. Death for her and death for me! A crime was on her soul
and she must die, and if she, then myself. I knew no other course.
I could not summon the police, point out my bride of a fortnight
and, with the declaration that she had been betrayed into killing a
man, coldly deliver her up to justice. Neither could I live at her
side knowing the guilty secret which parted us; or live anywhere in
the world under this same consciousness.
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