[CHAPTER XXXVIII.]
There was a moment's silence, then Mr. Leith said, huskily:
"Tell me how this fact came to your knowledge, Desmond."
"Do you remember the sudden trip my wife and I took to Florida last summer?"
"Yes, I heard of it," the lawyer replied.
"I will go back a few months previous to that trip." Mr. Desmond said.
"It was this winter a year previous that Bertram Chesleigh made the acquaintance of young Frederick Glenalvan in New York and was invited by him to visit his far-away Floridian home.
"About the first of last June Bert accepted the invitation, and spent about two weeks at Glenalvan Hall.
"He wrote to my wife from there, hinting vaguely at having lost his heart to a perfect 'pearl of beauty.'
"Edith, who is excessively proud, and mortally afraid of a mesalliance, replied to him coolly, discountenancing the idea and begging him not to marry out of his own state.