Mr. Magnus wrote to her at once. He was deeply concerned, he did not
chide her for what she had done, but he begged her to realise her
position. She felt through every line of his letter that he
disapproved of and distrusted Martin. His love for Maggie (and she
felt that he had indeed love for her) made him look on Martin as the
instigator in this affair. He saw Maggie, ignorant of the world, led
away by a seducer from her married life, persuaded to embark upon
what his own experience had taught him to be a dangerous, lonely,
and often disastrous voyage. He had never heard of any good of
Martin; he had been always in his view, idle, dissolute, and
selfish. What could he think but that Martin had, most wickedly,
persuaded her to abandon her safety?
She answered his letter, telling him in the greatest detail the
truth. She told him that Martin had done all he could to refuse,
that, had he not been so ill, he would have left her, that he had
threatened her, again and again, with what he would do if she did
not the him.
She showed him that it had been her own determination and absolute
resolve that had created the situation--and she told him that she
was happy for the first time in her life.
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