"I was married three weeks ago. It cannot be true."
"I am here to tell the truth," the other replied.
"But it is so--so ironic. To allow me to start a new life--a beautiful
life--just as the night is coming. Why, it is diabolical; it is not
just; the cruelty of it is fiendish."
A spot of gleaming red stained each of the speaker's thin cheeks. He
clenched his hands together, riveting his gaze on the doctor, as he went
on:--
"Can't you see what I mean? I had no idea--I had not the faintest
suspicion of what you say. And I have had a very hard struggle. I have
been poor and quite friendless. I have had to fight, and I have lost
much of the good in my nature by fighting, as we often do. But at last I
have won the battle, and I have won more. I have won goodness to give
me back some of my illusions. I had begun to trust life again. I had--"