Time, business, worldly hopes and cares, the triumphs and
defeats of an exciting profession, gradually weakened the impres-
sion made upon me by the gentle virtues of Edith Willoughby ;



114 THE MARRIAGE SETTLEMENT.
and when, about fifteen months after the wedding, my wife in-
formed me that she had been accosted by Mrs. Harlowe at
a shop in Bond Street, my first feeling was one of surprise, not
untinged with resentment, for what I deemied her ungrateful
neglect.
" She recognized you then .'" I remarked.
" Recognized me ! What do you mean .'"

" I thought perhaps she might have forgotten your features,
as she evidently has our address."

" If you had seen," replied my wife, " how pale, how cold,
how utterly desolate she looked, you would think less hardly of
her. As soon as she observed me, a slight scream escaped her ;
and then she glanced eagerly and tremblingly around like a
startled fawn. Her husband had passed out of the shop to give,
I think, some direction to the coachman. She tottered towards
me, and clasping me in her arms, burst into a passion of tears.
" Oh, why — why," I asked as soon as I could speak, " why
have you not written to us.'" "I dar«d not!" she gasped.
