In all this there was some mystery, which I felt curious enough to probe, as Guilfoyle had never by word or hint at any time given those among whom he moved reason to believe he was aught else than a bachelor, and a very eligible one, too; for if my once rival, as I believed him to be, was not a creditable, he was certainly a plausible, one; and here lay with me the means of an exposé beyond even that which had taken place at Craigaderyn Court.
"You are his wife, madam, and yet--does he, for purposes of his own, disavow you?" said I, after a pause, not knowing very well how to put my leading question.
"It is so, sir--for infamous purposes of his own."
"But you have him in your power; you have all the air of a lady of birth and education--why not come forward and assert your position?"
The woman's soft gray eyes were usually filled by an expression of great and deep sadness; but there were times when, as she spoke, they flashed with fire, and there were others, when her whole face seemed to glitter with "the white light of passion" as she thought of her wrongs. Restraining her emotion, she replied,
"To assert my claims; that is exactly what I cannot do--now at least."
"Why?"
"Because he has destroyed all the proofs that existed of our unhappy and most miserable marriage."
"Destroyed them! how?"
"Very simply, by putting them in the fire before my face."