working." I think that if through fault or sin of mine our misery had been made, I could not have borne it. That is why Paul suffers so terribly, because he knows that his own hand was the means of our undoing. Paul! Paul! and I can give you no word of comfort! no, nor ease your shoulders from one iota of the burden laid upon them.
I have seen him twice, before all the rest. Fortunately, papa is not so far gone in madness and hospitality as to invite Mrs. Vasher to dinner, and as she has been here he is perfectly unsuspicious of the wheels within wheels; and long may he remain so, say I. He, mother, and I, have been invited to a dinner party at The Towers (ye gods!), but as papa has fortunately quarrelled outright with every other neighbour invited, and as it might be awkward if he had to take his enemy's wife in to dinner, he has declined for obvious reasons. Mrs. Vasher has returned her visits as she received her visitors, alone, and the county to a man cries fie! upon Paul; and the county to a woman, with a spiteful though true instinct, takes the part of the husband, and calls fie on the wife.
Sometimes I think I never made a greater mistake than when I made Paul go back to his wife. Upon him I entailed a life of utter wretchedness; what his existence is his face tells plainly enough; and the tongue of scandal even has not been stopped, although my name has not yet appeared in the matter. He might have got over his disappointment in time if he had been away from her, but how can he forget for one moment when Silvia is ever before him, a living witness of the past? God forgive me if I acted arrogantly and unwisely; I did it for the best.
Footsteps come softly over the grass, and Simpkins appears somewhat unexpectedly before me. There are signs of hurry and discomposure on the ancient man's countenance, that nothing short
