‘It’s many months since I saw him.’
‘Who, then, is the woman who has told him your whole story—with embellishments, and who says she has had it from you yourself?’
Nancy was speechless.
‘I don’t say there is any such person,’ Tarrant continued. ‘The man may have lied in that particular. But he has somehow got to know a good deal about you,—where and when your child was born, where it is now, where I live, and so on. And all this he has reported to your aunt, Mrs. Damerel.’
‘To her?—How do you know?’
For answer he held out Mrs. Damerel’s note of invitation, then added:
‘I have been with her this afternoon. She is coming to offer you her protection against the scoundrel who has ruined you, and who is now living upon you.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That’s the form the story has taken, either in Mr. Crewe’s mind, or in that of the woman who told it to him.’
‘Don’t they know that I am married?’