The fact of Sir William’s marriage was no longer a secret, although Lady Linton had tried every way to conceal it. It was not very generally known, however, even now; but in his own household and among his intimate friends it was understood that he had married a beautiful woman while on his first visit to America, and that some cruel misunderstanding had resulted in a separation. He had insisted upon this explanation, for hope was not yet quite dead in his heart that some time he might find Virgie, effect a reconciliation, and bring her home to Heathdale.
Those who knew that he was free to marry again, if he chose, sometimes urged him to do so and not allow his name to become extinct.
But he always replied, with a heavy sigh:
“I have a wife already, and some time, please Heaven, I shall find her. No other shall ever be mistress of Heathdale while I live.”
This reply never failed to arouse the fiercest anger in Lady Linton, who grew more bitter with every year toward the woman whom she had wronged, and who had repaid her injuries with such kindness and Christian charity to her everlasting shame and humiliation.
“‘Wife,’ indeed!” she once retorted. “A woman who divorced herself from you in the way she did, coolly severing the bonds, which you seem still to hold in such reverence, is not worthy the name.”
“But I loved her, Miriam—I love her still; I shall be true to her till I die,” her brother answered. “Our separation has been the strangest thing in the world—it is wholly incomprehensible to me; but if I ever find we have been the victims of treachery, let the enemy who has meddled beware!”
Twice during these last eight years he had crossed the Atlantic and renewed his search for Virgie, but without obtaining the least clew of her whereabouts, and so he returned again to his home.
He never intruded his sorrow upon any one; indeed his life flowed along so calmly and smoothly that a stranger might have supposed that he had remained single from choice, although there was a wistful sadness in his eyes that impressed every one.
Of late he had interested himself considerably in politics and been in Parliament, having been returned for his borough several times.