"How can I satisfy you save by denying any other marriage?"
"Has no ceremony ever passed between your grace and another woman who claims to be your wife?"
"No legal ceremony, upon my honor as a nobleman."
"No legal ceremony; some kind of ceremony has taken place, then?" said Mr. Godfrey.
"If not a legal one, then none which concerns you. Be content, Mr. Godfrey, daughter is indisputably a duchess."
"I am not content, my lord duke; I must see this other claimant to the ducal coronet," said Mr. Godfrey, rising.
"By heaven, you shall not!" answered the duke, rising as suddenly; "you shall not—indeed you shall not. No, my poor Ellen, no: injured you have been, but at least I will save you from insult."
"Methinks your grace's words are strange ones to the father of your ride," said Mr. Godfrey. "Is the peace of your mistress to be preferred to that of your wife?"
"Let us understand each other, Mr. Godfrey," said the duke; "and to do that, I must caution you not to say one word in disrespect of the person you falsely term my mistress. Listen: Fifteen years ago I met a being, lovely, tender, innocent; before one personating a Romish priest I called her wife; she knew not, until now, the title was not legal; for fifteen years I have, as a simple gentleman, sought her society when weary of ambition and of the selfishness of the world; for fifteen years have I, at such intervals as I could steal away from grandeur and false honors, found repose and happiness in the society of that gentle, that unworldly being. Children have been born to me and died, all save one, a noble boy—one whom I would gladly train to deeds of glory, were it that—O Ellen, Ellen!"