“Don’t, Will,” she whispered, clinging fondly to him, “it is all over now; let us forget it, if possible, and enjoy to the utmost our new-found happiness.”
“Forget! I can never forget. I will never forgive this terrible wrong,” he said sternly. “Oh, my love, nothing can give us back those lost years; nothing can ever make me forget that for more than eighteen years I had a lovely daughter and never once looked upon her face to know her as such. Miriam Linton is a sister of mine no longer.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
“GOD IS GOOD.”
“To think,” continued Sir William, after a moment of thought, “how systematically she set about her dreadful work, how remorselessly she persisted in it until she had achieved her end. And Mrs. Farnum! how she could see and know you, my beloved; how she could look upon that innocent darling, in whom was centered the hopes of both of us, and lend her aid, is a marvel and—a shame upon the name of woman! She shall never cross the threshold of Heathdale again.”
“I cannot understand how she could have lent herself to such a base intrigue!” said Virgie, thoughtfully.
Sir William smiled bitterly.
“What is it, dear?” she asked, remarking it.
“I suppose I can give a reason, although it may sound somewhat egotistical,” he returned. “Sadie Farnum—now Lady Royalston—once aspired to become Lady Heath, while it was the dearest wish of both her mother and my sister, who have been life-long friends, that I should marry her.”
Virgie flushed. She could now understand why she had been the object of their curious glances when they first came to the —— Hotel, New York.
Sir William leaned forward and touched his lips to her crimson cheek and murmured: