Therefore I am satisfied
that you understand enough of what I said to discontinue any legal
proceedings which would tend to discredit, expose, or cast odium on a
young wife very sorely stricken--very, very ill--whom God, in his mercy,
has blinded to the infamy where you have dragged her--under the law of
the land."
He turned on his heel, paced the little room once or twice, then swung
round again:
"Keep your filthy money--wrung from women and boys over card-tables.
Even if some blind, wormlike process of instinct stirred the shame in
you, and you ventured to offer belated aid to the woman who bears your
name, I forbid it--I do not permit you the privilege. Except that she
retains your name--and the moment you attempt to rob her of that I shall
destroy you!--except for that, you have no further relations with
her--nothing to do or undo; no voice as to the disposal of what remains
of her; no power, no will, no influence in her fate. _I_ supplant you; I
take my own again; I reassume a responsibility temporarily taken from
me.
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