She ran on, then back, read it all through, and once more read the letter all through again from the beginning.

When she had finished, she felt that she was cold all over, and that a fearful calamity, such as she had not expected, had burst upon her.

In the morning she had regretted that she had spoken to her husband, and wished for nothing so much as that those words could be unspoken.

And here this letter regarded them as unspoken, and gave her what she had wanted.