He had a great dislike to being--'blown up,' as he would probably have expressed it himself, and he already thought that he saw in his companion's eye a tendency that way.

Turning all this in his mind, he paused a moment before he began to tell his tale.

'You say that a good deal in this woman's letter is true.

Had you not better tell me what is true ?' 'I was very intimate with her.' 'Did she ever live with you ?' 'Yes, she did.' 'As your wife ?' 'Well; yes.

It is of course best that you should know all.' Then he gave a tolerably true account of all that had happened between himself and Mrs.Smith up to the time at which, as the reader knows, he found her performing at the Sydney theatre.
'You had made her a distinct promise of marriage on board the ship ?' 'I think I had.' 'You think ?' 'Yes.