I
have long wanted to tell you this story--indeed, I wanted to tell it
to you before you made Alice your wife, yet the fear that I would be
wrecking the life and reason of my child kept me silent. No doubt if
I had told you, and you had been influenced by my experience against
a loveless marriage, I should to-day be blaming myself for her
condition, which I see plainly now is but the culmination of three
generations of hysterical women. But I want to tell you the story
and urge you to use it as a warning in your position of counsellor
and friend of ambitious young men.
"No matter what else a man may do for position, don't let him marry a
woman he does not love, especially if he crucifies a vital passion
for another, in order to do this." Then Preston Cheney told the
story of his life to his son-in-law; and as the tale proceeded, a
strange interest which increased until it became violent excitement,
took possession of the rector's brain and heart. The story was so
familiar--so very familiar; and at length, when the name of BERENE
DUMONT escaped the speaker's lips, Arthur Stuart clutched his hands
and clenched his teeth to keep silent until the end of the story
came.
"From the hour Berene disappeared, to this very day, no word or
message ever came from her," the invalid said.
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