“But Alick will remedy the evil now. He will marry me over again. You know he will, Mr. Hammond?”
“I know he ought to do so; I know he is bound by the holiest obligations that can bind a man to do so; I know if he had one spark of honor in him he would do so; but I do not believe he will,” growled Dick.
“How dare you say that?”
“Because if he had the slightest intention of doing you justice, he would never even dream of the step he is now actually about to take, and of which I came here on purpose to warn you.”
“What step? You said something of this when you first arrived. What is it?”
“A step which, (were you his wife, as you ought in justice to be) would take him across the threshold of a state’s prison, for it would be a felony,” answered Hammond, speaking distinctly and emphatically, and hoping that she would understand him, and save him the pain of a more particular explanation.
But she did not even suspect his meaning. She only clasped her hands, and gazed at him with piteous and beseeching eyes, and murmured:
“What is it? Speak plainly.”
He turned away his head that he might not witness her despair, as he replied:
“He is about to take advantage of the discovery he has made by marrying Miss Anna Ly——”