“But I never saw but one woman whom I could be willing to have reign as mistress in my home. Virgie, I shall take you to Heathdale immediately.”
Her whole face was dyed scarlet in an instant.
“You forget,” she faltered, humbly, “I have no right to go there. I have forfeited all title to your name and home.”
“I did forget,” he answered, growing pale and sighing heavily. “I cannot realize since I have found you but that you belong to me now as in those early days; and you do; before Heaven, you are as truly my wife to-day as you ever were. But,” and his arm closed tenderly about her, “the only obstacle is a legal point, and that is easily removed. You wish it, do you not, my darling? You will come to me at once?”
“I should die if I lost you again,” Virgie cried, clinging to him with another burst of tears. “It has been a weary struggle to live without you all these years. But for Virgie I would gladly have laid down the burden long ago.”
“Then may I go to London immediately for a special license, since we must conform to the letter of the law? I can never be separated from you again,” said Sir William, as he fondly wiped her falling tears.
“But how can I leave my uncle, Lord Norton?” Virgie asked, suddenly remembering that new claim upon her and her promise not to leave him while he lived.
“Lord Norton your uncle? Ah, that accounts for your being here. I could not understand it,” returned the baronet, looking astonished and remembering for the first time where she was.
Virgie explained how the relationship had recently been discovered, and informed him of his lordship’s wishes that she should remain with him for the present.
“We must respect the wishes of a dying man,” Sir William gravely replied, “and I, too, had forgotten my own obligations to him.”