"Why did you not own her as your wife?"
Faith hardly knew her own voice as she asked this. It hardly seemed possible that she could speak so calmly.
Mr. Denton looked at her sharply before he replied.
"You can guess that surely," he said very softly. "Rascal that I was, I was ashamed to own her."
After a minute he went on with almost desperate calmness, as though he was determined to tell the whole of the distressing secret.
"I told her that dad would disown me if he knew that I had married her, but that if she would wait until I was twenty-one, that there would be no more danger of my losing my money. Mag likes money, you know, and she consented readily, but when she saw me flirting with the other girls, as I had to, you see, to make every one think that I was still single, her jealousy got the best of her, and you know what happened."
"Well, you will have to own her now," said Faith in almost a whisper.
She had been praying silently for strength to say it calmly.
"Never!" cried young Denton with a flash of anger in his eyes.
"Own a murderess for my wife—never! never! Miss Marvin!"