And so this was the end of all his hopes, ambitions, shifts and
struggles! The story would be in every paper in England before another
twenty-four hours were over, headed, "/Remarkable occurrence at
Boisingham Quarter Sessions.--Alleged bigamy of a solicitor./" No
doubt, too, the Treasury would take it up and institute a prosecution.
This was the end of his strivings after respectability and the wealth
that brings it. He had overreached himself. He had plotted and
schemed, and hardened his heart against the de la Molle family, and
fate had made use of his success to destroy him. In another few months
he had expected to be able to leave this place a wealthy and respected
man--and now? He laid his hand upon the table and reviewed his past
life--tracing it from year to year, and seeing how the shadow of this
accursed woman had haunted him, bringing disgrace and terror and
mental agony with it--making his life a misery. And now what was to be
done? He was ruined. Let him fly to the utmost parts of the earth, let
him burrow in the recesses of the cities of the earth, and his shame
would find him out. He was an impostor, a bigamist; one who had
seduced an innocent woman into a mock marriage and then taken her
fortune to buy the silence of his lawful wife.
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