Juliette followed slowly after, with a white face of wrath and envy, for she well knew that, though Pansy was lost to Norman forever, he would never love another.
Phebe went up to her mistress with a message from Mr. Wylde, and, after a long interval, returned with a brief, ambiguous note:
I refuse to see you. I received my decree of divorce this morning, and to-morrow I shall be married to Colonel Falconer. Forgive me, Norman, for I have acted for the best as far as I could see my duty. Let our child comfort you. Love him, and make up to him for his mother’s loss. I go abroad in a few days, never to return. Forget me if you can, and if not, remember me with pity. Farewell forever, and may Heaven bless you!
Pansy.
Crushing the perfumed sheet in his hand, he staggered across the doorway with a face like a corpse. A white hand fluttered down on his coat sleeve, and tender blue eyes gazed into his agonized face.
“You see now!” said Juliette triumphantly. “She was like the majority of women. She cared more for Colonel Falconer’s money than for her husband’s love! Oh, Norman,” her voice sank into a low, pleading cadence, “will you not forget her now and make up our wretched quarrel? Remember, we loved each other before you ever saw her face!”
“I never loved you—never! And for the misery your sin has brought me I curse you!” he answered. “I have lost her, but it was through your treachery at the beginning that she was forced into a position where her noble nature made her sacrifice herself and me to a mistaken sense of duty. Ah, I understand her generous soul! Do not prate to me of gold. She cared nothing for that, but, in her pity for him, she has broken both her heart and mine.” And, throwing off her touch as though it were a serpent’s coil, he rushed away.
CHAPTER XLII.
REMARRIED.
In a short time the words were spoken that made Pansy Laurens for a second time a wife, and, though it was like a deathblow to her happiness, she bore herself with proud calmness that the good man by her side should have no cause to suspect that she had sacrificed herself for his sake.
In a few days more they went abroad, taking Juliette with them, as also the valet and the two maids. Several months were spent in Italy, then when winter was past they traveled for several months. When autumn came round again Colonel Falconer began to think of purchasing a home and settling down in the land of his adoption.