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 his eyes; for a moment he saw things through a crimson mist.

“Why not? Is not the husband a law unto the wife? Has not the law the power and the right to punish the evildoer? This last punishment seemed peculiarly fitted to her crimes. One must exorcise the devil at all costs.”

“And you would have left her there to perish?”

“Oh, no. I should have returned at dusk; as a matter of fact I did. The result you know. Ever since I have been dashing about in search of her. For love, of course.” He laughed weirdly, though his eye was steady, cold and unresponsive. “Singular how fortune favours the indefatigable. What god is it, I wonder, that watches over the destinies of desperate husbands? But for this opportune accident I might now be flying somewhere through Sussex. Don’t you see the hand of Providence? It makes me think that there may be something sacramental in marriage after all. You have no idea how inconceivably attached I am to the bond. Marriage imposes a serious and inalienable obligation on a man. Not alone is his own integrity at stake, but into his charge has