A coward fear is grasping my heart with its clammy hands.

Then-- "_Could!_" say I, shrugging my shoulders, and feebly trying to laugh derisively; "of course she could! it would be difficult to set a limit to the powers of a lady of her imagination!" "What do you mean ?" he cries, quickly, and with what sounds like a sort of hope in his voice; "have you any reason--any grounds for thinking her inventive ?" I do not answer directly.
"It is true, then," I cry, with flashing eyes, and in a voice of great and indignant anguish.

"I have not been mistaken! I was right! Is it possible that _you_, who, only this morning, warned me with such severity against backbiting, have been calmly listening to scandalous tales about me from a stranger ?" He does not interrupt me: he is listening eagerly, and that sort of hope is still in his face.
"I _knew_ it would come, sooner or later," I continue, speaking excitedly, and with intense bitterness, "sooner or later, I knew that it would be a case of Algy over again! but I did not--did not think that it would have been quite so soon! Great Heaven!" (smiting my hands sharply together, and looking upward), "I _have_ fallen low! to think that I should come to be discussed by _you_ with _her_!" "I have _not_ discussed you with her," he answers, very solemnly, and still looking at me with that profound and greedy eagerness in his eyes; "with _no_ living soul would I discuss my wife--I should have hardly thought I need tell you that! What I heard, I heard by accident.

She--as I believe, in all innocence of heart--referred to--the--the--circumstance, taking it for granted that I knew it--that _you_ had told me of it, and I--_I_--" (raising his clinched right hand to emphasize his speech)--"I take God to witness, I had no more idea to what she was alluding--as soon as I understood--she must have thought me very dull--" (laughing hoarsely)--"for it was a long time before I took it in--but as soon as I understood to what manner of anecdote it was that she was referring--then, _at once_, I bade her be silent!--not even with _her_, would I talk over my wife!" He stops.

He has risen from his chair, and is now standing before me.
His breath comes quick and panting; and his face is not far from being as white as mine.
"But what I have learned," he continues presently, in a low voice, that, by a great effort, he succeeds in making calm and steady, "I cannot again unlearn! I would not if I could!--I have no desire to live in a fool's paradise! I tried hard this morning--God knows what constraint I had to put upon myself--to induce you to tell me of your own accord--to _volunteer_ it--but you would not--you were _resolutely_ silent.