And that tawdrily dressed damsel had declared herself his wife! His wife!
She recalled the time when that word, as a term of endearment to herself, had fallen so sweetly on her startled ear; then a bitter, bitter sense of having been insulted and degraded, was added to her still more keen sense of utter disappointment in Derval; and to her guileless and innocent mind, no doubt, no thought of suspicion that she might be deluded, ever occurred.
"You have had an unexpected visitor, Miss Hampton?" said Rookleigh, eyeing her pale face keenly next day.
"Yes."
"Ah—so have I, one who has explained all."
"All?"
"My brother's peculiar perfidy, I mean."
"Yes."
"A perfidy for which I blush! You see that it has been as I suggested, sailors have entanglements everywhere; but this is rather more than that—a legal marriage."
"Oh, how dared he—how dared he!" she exclaimed, as she clenched her little white hands, and the look of firm resolve she would assume at times stole swiftly into her sweet face.