“Are you delirious?” I gasped.
“It’s the truth; she never did.”
“I saw a notice of it at the time. ‘A notice?’ I saw a hundred!”
“No. What you saw was that she had made an application for divorce. Her family got her that far and then she revolted. The suit was dropped.”
“It is true, indeed,” said Keredec. “The poor boy was on the other side of the world, and he thought it was granted. He had been bad before, but from that time he cared nothing what became of him. That was the reason this Spanish woman—”
I turned upon him sharply. “YOU knew it?”
“It is a year that I have known it; when his estate was—”
“Then why didn’t you tell me last night?”
“My dear sir, I could not in HIS presence, because it is one thing I dare not let him know. This Spanish woman is so hideous, her claim upon him is so horrible to him I could not hope to control him—he would shout it out to her that she cannot call him husband. God knows what he would do!”
“Well, why shouldn’t he shout it out to her?”