Why she did not wish to live _I_ do not know--perhaps _you_ do,' and my old friend turned from me with a coldness in his manner, which has remained there ever since." The Vicar sank into his chair again, as if the memory of his early trials had fatigued him, and Cardo, rising and approaching him, drew his hand gently over his black hair besprinkled with white.

His son's tenderness seemed to reach the old man's heart.
Burying his face in his hands he gulped down a sob before he continued: "Wait a minute, Cardo, you will not pity me when you have heard all my story.

With the earliest dawn I rushed out of the house, which seemed to stifle me.

I longed for the cool morning breezes, and God forgive me, if I thought too with longing of the cool sandy reaches that lay under the rippling waters of the bay! On the brow of the hill I met Essec Powell, who was out early to see a sick cow, and there, while my heart was sore to agony, and my brain was tortured to distraction, that man reproached me and insolently dared to call me to account for 'my inhuman conduct to my wife!' "'Ach y fi! What are you?
he said, with his strong Welsh accent, 'are you man or devil ?' and he tore open the wounds which were already galling me unbearably.

'You bring a young girl from a happy home, where she was indulged and petted, and in a year's time you have broken her spirit, and you will break her heart.