"I couldn't!" The words came jerkily, as if wrung from him by main force. "For one thing—the men were out of hand, and it was as much as I could do to hold them. She told them, I tell you—stood up and told them straight out—who she was. And they loathe the whole crowd. It was madness."
"Pretty sublime madness!" commented the squire. "And then Saltash took her away. Was that it?"
"Yes." Dick spoke with intense bitterness. "It was the chance he was waiting for. Of course he seized it. Any blackguard would."
"But you thought she might have come here?" pursued the squire.
"I thought it possible, yes. I told Yardley it was so. He of course sneered at the bare idea. I nearly choked him for it. But I might have known he was right. She wouldn't risk—my following her. She wanted to be—free."
"Why? Is she afraid of you then?" Fielding's voice was stern.
Dick threw up his head with the action of a goaded animal. "Yes."
"Then you've given her some reason?"
"Yes. I have given her reason!" Fiercely he flung the words. "You want to know—you shall know! This evening she found out something about me which even you don't know yet—something that made her hate me. I was going to tell her some day, but the time hadn't come. She said if she had known of it she would never have married me. I didn't realize then—how could I?—how hard it hit her. And I made her understand that having married me—it was irrevocable. That was why she ran away with Saltash. She didn't—trust me—any longer."
"But, my good fellow, what in heaven's name is this awful thing that even I don't know?" demanded the squire. "Don't tell me there has ever been any damn trouble with another woman!"