"What does he mean ?" "My husband," she answered, "I only lived in your love, and you have taken my life away from me; but you knew not what you did." "Leave us," said Claes to his children, who now re-entered the room.
"Have I for one moment ceased to love you ?" he went on, sitting down beside his wife, and taking her hands and kissing them.
"My friend, I do not blame you.

You made me happy--too happy, for I have not been able to bear the contrast between our early married life, so full of joy, and these last days, so desolate, so empty, when you are not yourself.

The life of the heart, like the life of the body, has its functions.

For six years you have been dead to love, to the family, to all that was once our happiness.

I will not speak of our early married days; such joys must cease in the after-time of life, but they ripen into fruits which feed the soul,--confidence unlimited, the tender habits of affection: you have torn those treasures from me! I go in time: we live together no longer; you hide your thoughts and actions from me.