"Er—ye—es," he stammered.
"You were married?" she cried.
There was a dreadful pause, and then abruptly she demanded, "What became of her?"
A dark frown answered this pertinent inquiry. She turned to the young man.
"Do you know?"
He seemed to have some difficulty in controlling his voice as he answered—
"She lives in London."
"Lives!" shrieked the lady. "Andrew—you are a bigamist! And I—I am not lawfully—"
She leapt up and gave him one terrible look; and before he could speak she had swept wrathfully from the room.
And then the most surprising thing occurred. Instead of continuing his filial overtures, the young man sank into the corner of the sofa and burst into peal upon peal of boyish laughter.