“My son’s name is Rodney. He has no other, and I will bear his. I decline to account to you for the name on my door.”
“You are very proud, Agnes, but I think it is best for you to be friendly with me, considering all things. I certainly am free to marry you now, and give the boy and you your right name and place. I should think you were the very woman to wish that. I happen to know of John Thorndyke’s death, too, so I think you are as free as I am now, even on your own ground. Agnes, I never meant to leave you so long. I wrote to you, and got no answer. I have searched for you in every direction, and only now I find you. Why are you so unwilling to live as my wife with me, when you see that it would place you and your son in a more respectable condition?”
Agnes remembers Margaret’s words: “See to it that he marries you when I am gone!” Then it had seemed doubtful if he could be persuaded to do so. And here he is suing for her consent. She remembers his son’s position, “nobody’s child,” but she remembers also her first-born son. She remembers the bold, false, bad heart and life of Martin Vanderlyn; she sees the possible effect of his evil influence on both her sons, as it formerly blighted her own life, and she shrinks in horror and disgust at the bare thought of such a stepfather introduced into their home. She answers his question without hesitation:
“I do not love you. I cannot respect you. You were false to your wife and false to me. I have been able to live happily without you all these years, and I shall live apart from you still.”
He keeps down his pride, and appears yet to hope to change her resolution, thinking it may be only the result of a woman’s pique. Moreover, he feels almost sure now that the comfortable home around her is purchased with the money left by Margaret. At all events, he is determined on getting a home if possible at her expense, and he does not scruple at any misrepresentation regarding his own means of support. To her last scornful words, he replies, with an air of kind consideration:
“But, Agnes, you will not always be able to support yourself as well as I can support you. I know not how you do it, but I can place you above the need of any effort on your part. Why can you not be frank with me, and tell me how you have managed to live? You did not receive all the money I sent, for some of it came back to me. Tell me, Agnes.”
“Martin Vanderlyn, I will not accept anything for either of us from you. We can do without you, and we will. My decision is final.”
“Do you know the harm I can do you?” he says, in an angry voice, and with flashing eyes. “I can brand you to the world and to the boy. Would you rather that than have a husband, and a father for your son?”
She seems to shrivel and whiten at his threat, but she stands firm, and answers him:
“You committed bigamy when you married me. What will the law do about that? I can prove it, sir! Now, had you not better leave me?”