Pagina 435 de 896

He smiled at her unconscious admission that she would have been

unhappy without Charles, having seen him; and replied:

"My child, you did see him, and it is Charles. If it had not been

Charles, it would have been another. Or, if it had been no other,

I should have been the cause, and then the dark part of my life

would have cast its shadow beyond myself, and would have fallen

on you."

It was the first time, except at the trial, of her ever hearing

him refer to the period of his suffering. It gave her a strange

and new sensation while his words were in her ears; and she

remembered it long afterwards.