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"-instant of passion?" he said, and would have gone on, but at

that word, as at a pang of physical pain, her lips stiffened

again, and again the muscles of her right cheek worked.

"Go away, go out of the room!" she shrieked still more shrilly,

"and don't talk to me of your passion and your loathsomeness."

She tried to go out, but tottered, and clung to the back of a

chair to support herself. His face relaxed, his lips swelled, his

eyes were swimming with tears.

"Dolly!" he said, sobbing now; "for mercy's sake, think of the

children; they are not to blame! I am to blame, and punish me,

make me expiate my fault. Anything I can do, I am ready to do

anything! I am to blame, no words can express how much I am to

blame! But, Dolly, forgive me!"

She sat down. He listened to her hard, heavy breathing, and he

was unutterably sorry for her. She tried several times to begin

to speak, but could not. He waited.