I've hesitated long before coming. But I am desperate. The
one hope I have left is that you and I between us may be able to--to--that
you and I may be able to help each other."
I waited.
"I suppose there are people," she went on, "who have never known what it
was to--really to care for some one else. They would despise me for
clinging to a man after he has shown me that--that his love has ceased."
"Pardon me, Mrs. Langdon," I interrupted. "You apparently think your
husband and I are intimate friends. Before you go any further, I must
disabuse you of that idea."
She looked at me in open astonishment. "You do not know why my husband has
left me?"
"Until a few minutes ago, I did not know that he had left you," I said.
"And I do not wish to know why."
Her expression of astonishment changed to mockery. "Oh!" she sneered. "Your
wife has fooled you into thinking it a one-sided affair. Well, I tell you,
she is as much to blame as he--more. For he did love me when he married me;
did love me until she got him under her spell again."
I thought I understood. "You have been misled, Mrs. Langdon," said I
gently, pitying her as the victim of her insane jealousy. "You have--"
"Ask your wife," she interrupted angrily.
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