had used your cruel persuasion upon me . . . you did not stop using it—no—you did not stop! My little sisters and brothers and my mother's needs—they were the things you moved me by . . . and you said my husband would never come back—never; and you taunted me, and said what a simpleton I was to expect him. . . . And at last I believed you and gave way! . . . And then he came back! Now he is gone. Gone a second time, and I have lost him now for ever . . . and he will not love me the littlest bit ever any more—only hate me. . . . O yes, I have lost him now—again because of—you!' In writhing, with her head on the chair, she turned her face towards the door, and Mrs. Brooks could see the pain upon it, and that her lips were bleeding from the clench of her teeth upon them, and that the long lashes of her closed eyes stuck in wet tags to her cheeks. She continued: 'And he is dying—he looks as if he is dying! . . . And my sin will kill him and not kill me! . . . O, you have torn my life all to pieces . . . made me a victim, a caged bird! . . . My own true husband will never, never—O God—I can't bear this!—I cannot!'
