The dark, weather-beaten face of the haggard woman lighted up with a fiery glow, and into either eye leaped a devil.
"Mollie Dane, if you ever want me to speak to you again, never breathe the name of your mother. Whatever she did, and whatever she was, the grave has closed over her, and there let her lie. I never want to hear her name this side of eternity."
Mollie looked almost frightened; she shrunk away with a wistful little sigh.
"I am never to know, then, if seems, and I am to go on through life a cheat and a lie. It is very hard. People have found out already I am not what I seem."
"How?" sharply.
"Why, the night I was deluded from home, it was by a letter signed 'Miriam' purporting to come from you, saying you were dying, and that you wanted to tell me all. I went, and walked straight into the cunningest trap that ever was set for a poor little girl."
"You have no idea from whom that letter came?"
"Not the slightest. I am pretty sure, though, it came from my husband."
"Your—what?"
"My husband, Miriam! You didn't know Miss Dane was a respectable married woman, did you? It's true, however. I've been married over a month."