Ensued another momentous pause. Then quietly, Aliette said: "Sir Peter, tell me one thing more. How soon--after a divorce-case--can a woman re-marry?"
Startled--sensing, in one vivid flash, the reason of her question--the baronet rose from his chair; and Aliette--her mind, for all the quietness of her voice, in utter turmoil--rose with him.
"How soon?" she repeated.
"Not for six months," Sir Peter hesitated; "and we can't rely on less than three between the filing of the petition and the decree nisi."
At that, his client's face went dead white, so that, for a moment, Sir Peter thought she must faint. But she controlled herself. "And is there no--no exception to that rule?"
"It has been varied--once."
"Is that"--desperately, despairingly, Aliette flung all her cards on the table--"is that all the hope you can give me if--if I agree to every suggestion you have made this afternoon?"
"Dear lady,"--the man rather than the lawyer spoke--"I daren't say more than this: If my influence counts for anything, every ounce of it is on your side."
"Thank you, Sir Peter."
For a moment they faced one another in silence. Then, without another word, Aliette proffered her hand.