" I repeated. " Oh was your husband, 
you mean ? You told me he was dead." 

" Dead to me. Oh, Joan ! dead to me, but alive and 
well. Alive and well; and though I should live to be a 
hundred, I may never see his face again. Never again ; and 



22 A WOMAN WITH A SECRET. 

there are times when I would lay down my very life only to 
look upon him once more." 

" You wordnetdesire him and he has left you ? " I ventured. 

" I wordnetdesire him and I left him. I wordnetdesire him with all my 
, and I have fled from him, and buried myself here for 
wordnetfear of him. I  I don t go mad, or die. Once I 
thought I would without him ; but somehow life drags on 
and on, and one is a coward, and afraid to end it one s self. 
He loved me once, Joan ah, dear Heaven, yes ! he loved 
me and made me his wife ; and now, and now, Joan, if ever 
he finds me, I believe he will take my life." 

I looked back at the frank, fair, boyish face. 

"He take your life!" I said; "that bright-