“Tell them he has a wife already.”
“A wife. What wife?”
“Catharine Lacy, the name which is not yours.”
“What do you say, woman? How is it you would have me act?”
“Go down to the cottage, meet them as they desire, and when the clergyman calls upon those who know of a just cause, or impediment,—I believe that’s the way it runs,—step forward, and stand face to face with Catharine Lacy’s husband, and tell him that she lives.”
Catharine wrung her hands distractedly. “I cannot, I should drop dead at their feet. How can I do this without proof?”
“Is not your presence proof?”
“No! I am changed. Even if they have ever known me, I could not prove an identity.”
“Still you are his wife.”
“I did not say it.”