Should I go home and by some sort of subterfuge now unthought of, try to deceive my servants as to the time of my return, or attempt to create an alibi elsewhere?
Something I must do to save myself the anguish and Carmel the danger of my testimony in this matter.

She must never know, the world must never know that I had seen her here.
I had lost at a blow everything that gives zest or meaning to life, but I might still be spared the bottommost depth of misery--be saved the utterance of the word which would sink that erring but delicate soul into the hell yawning beneath her.

It was my one thought now--though I knew that the woman who had fallen victim to her childish hate had loved me deeply and was well worth my avenging.
I could not be the death of two women; the loss of one weighed heavily enough upon my conscience.

I would fly the place--I would leave this ghastly find to tell its own story.

The night was stormy, the hour late, the spot a remote one, and the road to it but little used.