You have said that he is my lover, but
you have probably not defined for yourself that word very
clearly. You have felt yourself slighted because his name
has been mentioned with praise;--and your jealousy has
been wounded because you have thought that I have regarded
him as in some way superior to yourself. You have never
really thought that he was my lover,--that he spoke words
to me which others might not hear, that he claimed from
me aught that a wife may not give, that he received aught
which a friend should not receive. The accusation has been
a coward's accusation.
I shall be at my father's to-night, and to-morrow I will
get you to let my servant bring to me such things as are
my own,--my clothes, namely, and desk, and a few books.
She will know what I want. I trust you may be happier
without a wife, than ever you have been with me. I have
felt almost daily since we were married that you were a
man who would have been happier without a wife than with
one.
Yours affectionately,
LAURA KENNEDY.
"It is at any rate true," she said, when Phineas had read the letter.
"True! Doubtless it is true," said Phineas, "except that I do not
suppose he was ever really angry with me, or jealous, or anything of
the sort,--because I got on well.
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