Margaret sat with downcast eyes as Rodney was speaking. For a few moments she had appeared pale and agitated, but she was now quite composed and nothing but a heightened colour hinted at any confusion. At the final question she raised her head and looked Rodney frankly in the face.
“At present, John,” she said quietly, “I am the wife of Daniel Purcell and as such have no right to contemplate any other marriage. But I will be honest with you. There is no reason why I should not be. You are quite right, John. I loved you in those days that you speak of, and if I never told you, you know why. You know how I came to marry Dan. It seemed to me then that I had no choice. Perhaps I was wrong; but I did what I thought was my duty to my father.
“In the years that have passed since then—the long, grey years—I have kept my covenant with Dan loyally in every respect. If I have ever looked back with regret, it has been in secret. But through those years you have been a faithful friend to me, and of all my friends the best beloved. And so you are now. That is all I can say, John.”
“It is enough, Maggie,” he said; “and I thank you from my heart for saying so much. Whatever your answer might have been, I would have done everything in my power to set you free. But now I shall venture to have a hope that I hold a stake in your freedom.”
She made no answer to this, and for some time both sat silently engrossed with their own thoughts and each thinking much the same thoughts as the other. The silence was at length broken by Rodney.
“It was an awful blow to me when I came home from my travels and found you married. Of course I guessed what had happened, though I never actually knew. I assumed that Dan had put the screw on your father in some way.”
“Yes. He had lent my father money and the bills could not be met.”
“What a Juggernaut the fellow is!” exclaimed Rodney. “An absolutely ruthless egoist. By the way, was he in the habit of lending money? I notice that he refers in this letter to a person named Levy. Who is Levy? And what does Dan do for a livelihood? He is out of the paper trade, isn’t he?”
“I think so. The truth is, I have never known what his occupation is. I have suspected that he is principally a money-lender. As to Mr. Levy, I have always thought he was a clerk or manager; but it rather looks as if he were a partner.”
“We must find out,” said Rodney. “And there is another thing that we must look into: that mysterious letter that Penfield received from Dan. Did you ever learn what was in it?”