Anne Hereford: A Novel

by Mrs. Henry Wood

I spoke a few words as well as I could; just the heads of what I had heard, and from whom.

"Mrs. Penn! Why she of all people must know better. She knows who Mrs. Chandos's husband is. Surely she cannot be mistaking me for my brother!"

"I thought, sir, you had no brother, except Sir Thomas."

"Yes, I have another brother," he answered, in a whisper. "You saw him to-day, Anne."

"That poor sick gentleman, who looks so near the grave?"

"Even so. It is he who is the husband of Mrs. Chandos. The fact of his being at Chandos is unknown, not to be spoken of," he said, sinking his voice still lower, and glancing round the walls of the room, as though he feared they might contain eavesdroppers. "Take care that it does not escape your lips."

Alas! it had escaped them. I bent my head and my troubled face, wondering whether I ought to confess it to him. But he spoke again.

"And so—this is the silly dream you have been losing yourself in! Anne! could you not have trusted me better?"

"You must please forgive me," I said, looking piteously at him through my tears.

Forgive me! He suddenly put out his arms, and gathered me to his breast.