"What do you mean?" Virgie demanded, standing straight and tall before her, and meeting her eyes with a blazing look which warned Mrs. Farnum to be careful how she dealt with that spirit.
"Pray, be calm, my child," she returned, with a pitiful accent. "Sit down beside me here, and I will explain why I am so disturbed. Good heavens! we have always supposed that Sir William was a man of unblemished honor."
"Madam, be careful how you speak of my husband!" Virgie interrupted, haughtily, yet with a note of agony in her voice. "Sir William is an honorable man, and I will not allow you to say one word against him in my presence."
"Poor child! poor child! I fear you have been terribly deceived. How can I ever tell you!" murmured Mrs. Farnum, in a shuddering voice, and with every appearance of distress.
"You shall tell me instantly. I will not stand here and listen to such paralyzing insinuations. If you have any thing to tell me, say it at once, and do not keep me in this maddening suspense!" Virgie commanded grasping the woman by the wrist, and transfixing her with her blazing eyes.
If Sir William Heath could have seen her at that moment he would have been very proud of her, for she had never been so beautiful, although a terrible agony was stamped upon her white, imperious face.
"I can only repeat what I have already said. It is impossible. You will never be mistress of Heathdale!" reiterated Mrs. Farnum, in an inflexible voice, as she disengaged her wrist from Virgie's grasp, which had left the imprint of every finger upon it.
"Go on!" commanded the young wife, authoritatively "You have simply made a statement. You must confirm it."
"Because," proceeded the relentless woman, "in the first place, if you are his wife, he would long before this have acknowledged you as such to his friends."
"He has done so, I tell you. He wrote immediately after our marriage, announcing it."