wife?"

She flushed a little as she answered:

"Sir, I am. I have been careful to bring the proof; here it is;" and
she took from a little hand-bag a certified copy of the register of
her marriage, and gave it to him. He examined it carefully through his
gold eye-glass, and handed it back.

"Perfectly in order. Hum! some eight months since, I see. May I ask
why I am now for the first time favoured with a sight of this
interesting document--in short, why you come down, like an angel from
the clouds, and reveal yourself at the present moment?"

"I have come," she answered, "because of these." And she handed him
two letters. "I have come to ascertain if they are true; if my husband
is a doubly perjured or a basely slandered man."

He read the two anonymous letters. With the contents of the first we
are acquainted; the second merely told of the public announcement of
Philip's engagement.

"Speak," she said, with desperate energy, the calm of her face
breaking up like ice before a rush of waters. "You must know
everything; tell me my fate!"

"Girl, these villanous letters are in every particular true. You have
married in my son the biggest scoundrel in the county. I can only say
that I grieve for you."