But again she looked from his taunting face back to the grave, sad face of Noel, who now added:
“I am here to say to Cora and you all, that my marriage to her was perfectly legal as far as church and State could make it. I love her still in spite of everything, and if she will forgive me the wrong I did in making her my wife against her will, and wishes to go with me, I on my part will forgive any harm she ever did me and gladly take her to my heart. On the other hand, if she prefers to secure a divorce and marry Laurier, I will make no fight against it. Her will shall be my law!”
It was a most noble rôle the man was playing in concealing Cora’s sins and taking them all on his own broad shoulders.
He had bought Carey Doyle’s silence, and was prepared to keep Cora’s secret forever from the world in atonement for the one great wrong he had done her—the wrong to which she had tempted him by her heartless coquetry.
Forgiving all her sins by the strength of his love he hoped to win her yet from Laurier, and awaited her answer with burning impatience.
But she clung all the closer to Frank, though she could read by his face that he thought she ought to turn to Noel.
She was opening her lips to cry out passionately that she loved only Laurier and would sue for a divorce, when Mark and Willie Lyndon rushed upon the scene, panting and excited, crying breathlessly:
“Oh, Uncle Leon, Aunt Verna, come with us! We have found our dear Cousin Jessie at last, but she is dead!”
Like a flash in the confusion of that startling announcement, Cora dropped Frank’s arm and flew to Noel’s side:
Her face was ghastly as she breathed in his ear: