"My dream! My dream! First the doctor; then my husband's son. The past is returning."
Alice covered her face with her hands to hide the tears.
"Nay, nay," said her husband. "Keep quiet—keep quiet."
She sank back on the couch, and lay still, with closed eyes and pale face.
Molly felt her heart. "It is beating too fast," she said. "Let her be still awhile."
Thus the evening, which began with an attempt at mere amusement and entertainment, became serious.
Alice recovered and opened her eyes. "John," she said, "does he understand?"
"I think so," Dick replied. "You were my father's first wife. In order to be free, he divorced you. He then married my mother. Believe me, madam, my mother was wholly ignorant, to the last, of this history."
"Indeed, I believe it. I do not think there was a woman in America who would have married a man with such a record."