Noel felt the limp figure stiffen at the mention of the hated name.
"Not as broken-hearted as I was!" she exclaimed, bitterly.
"How do you know, Jacqueline? 'Judge not, lest ye be judged,'" he quoted softly.
"I have been judged!" she replied in the same hard undertone. "He drove me out of his house like a dog!"
Noel was silent for a moment; and when he spoke his voice was vibrant with the emotion that the memory of that terrible night awoke.
"I was there that day, Jacqueline, after you had gone," he said. "I saw his grief—and his repentance. I heard him curse his anger and his pride. And since then he—we have searched the world for you. For twenty years he has not had a thought that was not of you, and in those twenty years he has never known peace or happiness. Ah! Jacqueline, dearest, I believe he has suffered even more than you have!"
"He had his son and I had nobody!" was the bitter reply.
And as if her words had been a call to him, the door was thrown violently open and Raymond dashed headlong into the room.