Send me and
your child into a Free State if we are in your way."
Again and again Linwood assured her that no woman possessed his
love but her. Oh, what falsehood. and deceit man can put on when
dealing with woman's love!
The unabated storm kept Henry from returning home until after the
clock had struck two, and as he drew near his residence he saw his
wife standing at the window. Giving his horse in charge of the
servant who was waiting, he entered the house, and found his wife
in tears. Although he had never satisfied Gertrude as to who the
quadroon woman and child were, he had kept her comparatively easy
by his close attention to her, and by telling her that she was
mistaken in regard to the child's calling him "papa." His absence
that night, however, without any apparent cause, had again
aroused the jealousy of Gertrude; but Henry told her that he had
been caught in the rain while out, which prevented his sooner
returning, and she, anxious to believe him, received the story as
satisfactory.
Somewhat heated with brandy, and wearied with much loss of sleep,
Linwood fell into a sound slumber as soon as he retired. Not so
with Gertrude. That faithfulness which has ever distinguished her
sex, and the anxiety with which she watched all his movements,
kept the wife awake while the husband slept. His sleep, though
apparently sound, was nevertheless uneasy. Again and again she
heard him pronounce the name of Isabella, and more than once she
heard him say, "I am not married; I will never marry while you
live.
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