I did not wish Miss Dinsmore to learn the fact, for I had a plan
in my mind which I hoped might yet serve to give me the position I so
coveted. I persuaded Miss Dinsmore that it would be wise to let me follow
Walter to Europe, and I promised her that if such a thing were possible,
I would return as his wife. Six weeks after he sailed with his bride, I
also left for Europe with some friends. I kept track of the unsuspicious
couple for four months, but it was not until they settled in Paris for
the winter that I had an opportunity to put any of my plans into action."
"If you please, Mrs. Montague, I would rather you would not tell me any
more," Mona here interrupted, with a shiver of repulsion. "My father
wrote out the whole story, and so I know all about it. You accomplished
your purpose and wrecked the life of a pure and beautiful woman--a loved
and loving wife; but truly I believe if my mother could speak to-day
she would say that she would far rather have suffered the wrong and
wretchedness to which she was subjected than to have exchanged places
with you."
"Do you dare to twit me of my present extremity and misery?" cried Mrs.
Montague, angrily.
"Not at all; I was not thinking of these later wrongs of which you have
been guilty," Mona gently returned, "but only of the ruin which you
wrought in the lives of my father and mother.
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