"I think you will," he answered, playing with his watch-guard. "And in the future, my little daughter, you will thank me."
"Thank you? For what?" asked Leam. "You made mamma miserable when she lived: you and your madame helped to kill her, and now you put this woman in her place! Papa, I wonder Saint Jago lets you live."
"As Saint Jago is kind enough to leave me in peace, perhaps you will follow his example. What a saint allows my little daughter may accept," said Mr. Dundas mockingly.
"No," said Leam with pathetic solemnity, "if the saints forget mamma, I will not."
"My dear, you are a fool," said Mr. Dundas.
"You may call me what you like, but madame shall not be my mother," returned Leam.
"Madame will be your mother because she will be my wife," said Mr. Dundas slowly. "Unfortunately for you—perhaps for myself also—neither you nor I can alter the law of the land. The child must accept the consequences of the father's act."
"Then I will kill her," cried Leam.
Her father laughed gayly. "I think we will brave this desperate danger," he said. "It is a fearful threat, I grant—an awful peril—but we must brave it, for all that."
"Papa," said Leam, "I will pray to the saints that when you die you may not go to heaven with mamma and me."