"He has no idea of it."
"He doesn't recognise you? That's strange! Was he at all in love with you before?"
"Oh, no!" the girl answered, with a very sad little smile. "If he had been——"
She did not finish her speech. In her own mind she was saying that, if Wallace Armstrong had indeed loved her at Boulogne, she would have been living by his side as his wife all these years in that very house to which she was hidden as a guest on the following day.
"Does Wallace Armstrong know your husband?" Mrs. Vandeleur asked, suddenly.
The blood swept over Laline's face as she answered,—
"Yes."
"And you want to find out about him?" pursued Mrs. Vandeleur. "Surely, if you detest and dread him so much, it would be wiser to restrain your curiosity."
"I want also to learn, if I can, whether my father is alive."