"Laline Garth."
"Good heavens! But he thinks you dead. Does he or any one know or guess the truth?"
"No one."
Clare drew a long breath. The discovery meant everything to her, and the one idea in her mind was to communicate the precious secret in the right quarter.
A faint sigh and a fluttering of the eyelids from Laline made Mrs. Vandeleur bend anxiously over her prostrate form; and in the slight diversion thus afforded Clare slipped noiselessly from the room.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Every nerve in Clare's body was tingling with revengeful joy over the possession of her rival's secret.
Of Laline's selfishness in wanting to marry both the Armstrongs she could not think without hot indignation. Ignoring the mistake which Laline had made on her first meeting with Lorin, Clare naturally supposed that her rival had deliberately gone to work to win Lorin from his allegiance, although she knew herself to be already married.
That Laline detested her husband was very clear. Under an entirely new light Clare recalled the short and angry scene between them to which she had been a witness on the preceding Sunday.