To me, the vows of marriage were sacred when first assumed; they remain no less sacred now.

This man is fully aware of how I feel in this regard; he knows I have proved true in spirit and letter to my vows; he knows exactly why I am not living with him; why I am earning my own living in the world; why I am here in this position to-day.

He knows it all, I say, because the desertion was his, not mine; and his present deliberate, cowardly attempt to besmirch my character by doing an injury to another is an unbearable insult, an outrage more serious than if he had struck me a physical blow.

The one I might forgive, as I have before forgiven, but the other is beyond the limits of pardon, if I would retain my own self-respect.

I am a woman, an honorable woman, and my reputation is more to me than life." She paused, breathing heavily, her head flung back, Her hands clenched as though in desperate effort at self-control.
"You--you!" the words seemed fairly forced from between her lips, "there has never been a time when I would not have gone to you at a word, at your slightest expressed desire.