Your past kindness to the unhappy Mrs.Evelin gives you a friendly claim on me which I gladly recognize--as you shall soon see.
"'The extraordinary story,' as you very naturally call it, is nevertheless true.

I am the only person now at your disposal who can speak as an eye-witness of the events.
"In the first place I must tell you that the dreadful intelligence, received from New Zealand, had an effect on Lord Howel Beaucourt which shocked his friends and inexpressibly distressed his admirable wife.

I can only describe him, at that time, as a man struck down in mind and body alike.
"Lady Howel was unremitting in her efforts to console him.

He was thankful and gentle.

It was true that no complaint could be made of him.
It was equally true that no change for the better rewarded the devotion of his wife.
"The state of feeling which this implied imbittered the disappointment that Lady Howel naturally felt.