I was the wife - oh, the folly of it
- but this was known to so few, and those were so far removed,
and one even - my friend Sadie - being dead - Why not ignore the
miserable secret ceremony and cheat myself into believing myself
free, and enjoy this world of pleasure and fashion as Cora was
enjoying it and - trust. Trust what? Why the Klondike! That
swallower-up of men. Why shouldn't it swallow one more - Oh, I
know that it sounds hateful. But I was desperate; I had seen you.
"I had one letter from him after he reached Alaska, but that was
before I left Owosso. I never got another. And I never wrote to
him. He told me not to do so until he could send me word how and
where to write; but when these directions came my heart had changed
and my only wish was to forget his existence. And I did forget it
- almost. I rode and danced with you and went hither and yon,
lavishing money and time and heart on the frivolities which came in
my way, calling myself Veronica and striving by these means to crush
out every remembrance of the days when I was known as Antoinette
and Antoinette only. For the Klondike was far and its weather
bitter, and men were dying there every day, and no letters came (I
used to thank God for this), and I need not think - not yet - whither
I was tending.
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