My sadness increased.

What could I reply?
Finally she came to speak of herself.
Not long since, she said, a man who loved her abandoned her.

She had made great sacrifices for him; her fortune was compromised, as well as her honor and her name.

Her husband, whom she knew to be vindictive, had made threats.

Her tears flowed as she continued, and I began to forget my own sorrow in my sympathy for her.