She will never look upon my guilty face--she so pure, so stainless, so sweet--how dare I ask it?
Oh, what happy women there are in the world! Wives who love and are beloved, and are faithful to the end! And I--think how I drag on living with all that makes life worth having gone forever, while those happy ones, whose lives are one blissful dream, are torn by death from all who love them.

To think that I once had a husband, a child, a home; to think what I am now--to think of it, and not to go mad!" She laid her face against the cold glass with a miserable groan.

"Have pity on me, oh, Lord! and let me die!" There was a rush of carriage-wheels without, a hansom cab whirled up to the door, and a tall young man leaped out.

Two minutes more and the tall young man burst impetuously into the dark room.
"All alone, Mrs.Denover," called a cheery voice, "and all in the dark?
Darkness isn't wholesome--too conducive to low spirits and the blue devils.

Halloo! Jane Anne, idol of my young affections, bring up the gas." He leaned over the greasy baluster, shouting into the invisible regions below, and was answered promptly enough by a grimy maid-servant with a flickering dip-candle.
"'Tain't my fault, nor yet missis's," said this grimy maid.