"I have no wish to hide anything from you," she said, coldly and with dignity; "I did not know that Sir Albert Gerald cared for me. I misunderstood something he said to me about not being free. He did not know where I was, and yesterday he passed by accident. He did not know anything. I told him I was now your wife and...."
"And you have cried ever since he left, and that is why you grow white and red," he said. "Had you known he loved you would you have married me?"
"Never!" said Margaret, looking at him directly.
"Thank you," he said, "now I know you. I have been a fool all round!"
He threw himself into a chair and gazed moodily before him.
"You married me knowing I had no love to give," Margaret said, gently; "I told you myself."
"You did not tell me you loved some one else," he said savagely, "and that is quite different; you have deceived me from first to last!"
"I have never wilfully deceived you—and I did not know it myself," she said. "I thought it had been but a pleasant break in my life, and that all was over."
He made her no answer, but as he rose to leave the room he said, "You must be ready to start to-night after dinner. Some bad news hurries me to England."
"To England!" exclaimed Margaret, quickly. "Oh, I shall be glad to be at home once more."