“Oh, no! It’s nothing but the scent of those tuberoses on the table—it’s so strong, it makes me feel faint.”
She moved away as she spoke and put herself a little out of the range of his vision. The judge took the glass of tuberoses and set it on the window-ledge.
“I thought you had a craze for all kinds of weeds. This thing has been too much for you; that’s what’s the matter.”
“No, no!” she gasped weakly. “I’m strong enough to stand a great deal more than this. I——” She hesitated, beginning to walk about on the other side of the room, her figure outlined against the rich bookbindings, but her face still in shadow. “Papa, what would you say if I—if I decided to go back to my husband?”
There was a sharp little pause before the judge’s bass boomed across the table.
“I’d disown you! A woman that could go back to such a coward wouldn’t deserve recognition.”
She laughed hysterically.
“But I married him!”
“You didn’t know it, did you?”
“You know I didn’t.”