"Please tell me, miss, how he became YOUR husband?"

"By lawful marriage, by my pastor."

"We'll soon see how LAWFUL it was," replied the woman, with a bitter laugh.
"I'd like you to tell me how often a man can be married lawfully."

"What do you mean?" cried Alida, with a sudden flash in her blue eyes. Then,
as if reproaching herself, she added kindly, "Pardon me. I see you are not
well. You do not realize what you are saying or where you are. Take a seat
nearer the fire, and when Mr. Ostrom comes from his work he'll take you to
your friends."

All the while she was speaking the woman regarded her with a hard, stony gaze;
then replied, coldly and decisively, "You are wrong, miss"--how that title
grated on Alida's ears!--"I am neither insane nor drunk. I do know what I am
saying and where I am. You are playing a bold game or else you have been
deceived, and very easily deceived, too. They say some women are so eager to
be married that they ask no questions, but jump at the first chance. Whether
deceived or deceiving, it doesn't matter now. But you and he shall learn that
there is a law in the land which will protect an honest woman in her sacred
rights. You needn't look so shocked and bewildered. You are not a young,
giddy girl if I may judge from your face. What else could you expect when you
took up with a stranger you knew nothing about? Do you know that likeness?"
and she drew from her bosom a daguerreotype.

Alida waved it away as she said indignantly, "I won't believe ill of my
husband. I--"

"No, miss," interrupted the woman sternly, "you are right for once. You won't