Access Online - The European Library

"CRUEL AS THE GRAVE." 189common -sense, intense selfishness, and shrewdjudgment. An appeal to these, she thought,could not fail. Nevertheless, they had failed, andHarriet yy-as bewildered by their failure. Whenshe made her first appeal to Routh, she wasw-holly unprepared for his refusal. The dangerwas so tremendous, the unforeseen discovery- ofthe murdered man's identity had introduced intotheir position a complication so momentous, soinsurmountable, that shehad never dreamed for amoment of Routh's being insensible to its weight—oCTand emergency. But he rejected her appealrudely, brutally, almost, and her astonishmentwas hardly inferior to her anguish. He mustindeed be infatuated by this strange and beautifulyvoman (Harriet fully- admitted the American'sbeauty — there was an element of candourand judgment in her which made the littlenessof depreciating arival impossible) when he couldoy-erlook or under-estimate the importance, theclanger, of this newly arisen complication.This was a neyv phase in her husband's character;this yvas an aspect under which she hadnever seenhim, and she w-as bewildered by it, for