‘Actually,’ returned the young lady with a sarcastic bow.
Thereupon George Craik sprang to his feet, prepared to deliver the coup de grâce.
‘Tell her the truth, father!’ he exclaimed. ‘Tell her that she is no more married than I am!’
‘What does he mean?’ cried Alma, looking at her uncle. ‘Is he mad?’
‘He means simply this, Alma,’ said Sir George, after a prompting glance from his son. ‘If you have gone through the marriage ceremony with this man, this infidel, you have been shamefully betrayed. The scoundrel was unable to marry again, if, as we have reason to believe, his first wife is still living!’
The two men, father and son, had struck their blow boldly but very cruelly, and it came with full force on the devoted woman’s head. At first Alma could scarcely believe her ears; she started in her chair, put out her hands quickly as if to ward off another savage attack, and then shrank in terror, while every vestige of colour in her cheeks faded away.
Sir George stood gazing down at her, also greatly agitated, for he was well-bred enough to feel that the part he was playing was unmanly, almost cowardly. He had spoken and acted on a mere surmise, and even at that moment, amidst the storm of his nervous indignation, the horrible thought flashed upon him that he might be wrong after all.
‘“His first wife is still living!”’ repeated Alma with a quick involuntary shudder, scarcely able to realise the words. ‘Uncle, what do you mean? Have you gone mad, as well as George? Of whom are you speaking? Of—of Mr. Bradley?’
‘Of that abominable man,’ pried the baronet, ‘who, if my information is correct, and if there is law in the land, shall certainly pay the penalty of his atrocious crime! Do not think that we blame you,’ he added more gently; ‘no, for you are not to blame. You have been the dupe, the victim of a villain!’
Like a prisoner sick with terror, yet gathering all his strength about him to protest against the death-sentence for a crime of which he is innocent, Alma rose, and trembling violently, still clutching the chair for support, looked at her uncle.