I turned and stole silently away.
CHAPTER XXI
IN PORT
That night I could not rest. It was impossible to rid myself of the
picture of Mrs. Falchion as I had seen her by the precipice in the storm.
What I had dared to hope for had come. She had been awakened; and with
the awakening had risen a new understanding of her own life and the lives
of others. The storm of wind and rain that had swept down the ravine was
not wilder than her passions when I left her with Justine in the dark
night.
All had gone well where the worst might have been. Roscoe's happiness was
saved to him. He felt that the accident to him was the penalty he paid
for the error of his past; but in the crash of penalties Mrs. Falchion,
too, was suffering; and, so far as she knew, must carry with her the
remorse of having seen, without mercy, her husband sink to a suicide's
grave. I knew that she was paying a great price now for a mistaken past.
I wished that I might make her remorse and sorrow less. There was a way,
but I was not sure that all would be as I wished. Since a certain
dreadful day on the 'Fulvia', Hungerford and I had held a secret in our
hands.
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