She had read of curses following sin.

But what had she done?
No woman's lot surely had ever been so bitter.

She could not understand it, while the woman who had loved her husband, who had practiced fraud and deceit, and lied, went unpunished.
Yet her case was hardly that, for Norman did not love her.

Daughter of a felon as she--Madaline--was--poor, lowly, obscure--he had given her his heart, although he could never make her the mistress of his home.

There was some compensation for human suffering, some equality in the human lot, after all.