The things we do!

She rushed over to
me last year on the night you did it, you know she did."
"Great God, ma'am! You know the provocation," screams Barnes.
"Provocation or not, I don't say. But from that moment she has beat you.
You fool, to write her a letter and ask her pardon. If I had been a man I
would rather have strangled my wife, than have humiliated myself so
before her. She will never forgive that blow."
"I was mad when I did it; and she drove me mad," says Barnes. "She has
the temper of a fiend, and the ingenuity of the devil. In two years an
entire change has come over her. If I had used a knife to her I should
not have been surprised. But it is not with you to reproach me about
Clara. Your ladyship found her for me."
"And you spoilt her after she was found, sir. She told me part of her
story that night she came to me. I know it is true, Barnes. You have
treated her dreadfully, sir."
"I know that she makes my life miserable, and there is no help for it,"
says Barnes, grinding a curse between his teeth.


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