"So she has told you and saved me from doing so?"
Young Denton breathed a sigh of relief. He had come too late with his awful confession.
"Yes, she told us, your father and me," said Faith, faintly. "Oh, it is dreadful—dreadful; I can't understand it!"
"Neither can I," said James Denton, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. "I have never understood how I came to do it. I was a fool—an imbecile—a lunatic, Miss Marvin. I married the girl without even dreaming that I loved her."
Faith stared at him in surprise as he spoke the words. She was conscious even of a flutter of happiness as she listened to the confession.
"Then why did you marry her?" she asked at last. She watched eagerly to hear his answer.
"It was all done for a lark," began the young man. "We were out with some friends, Miss Brady and I, and I—I suppose we had all been drinking too much; then some one suggested a wedding, and I was fool enough to play the bridegroom."
"And you did not love her?"
Faith asked the question slowly.
"Not a bit, Miss Marvin; I liked her, of course. But she was in love with me; I discovered that later."