guest? Give us a kiss, my angel, and say you're glad to see your
scrapegrace husband back."

He strides forward and has her in his arms before any one can speak.
He stoops his black-bearded face to kiss her, just as with a gasping
sob, her golden head falls on his shoulder and she faints dead away.




CHAPTER IV.

"I'LL NOT BELIEVE BUT DESDEMONA'S HONEST."


With a cry that is like nothing human, Sir Victor Catheron leaps
forward and tears his fainting wife out of the grasp of the
black-bronzed, bearded, piratical-looking young man.

"You villain!" he shouts, hoarse with amaze and fury; "stand back, or
by the living Lord I'll have your life! You scoundrel, how dare you
lay hands on my wife!"

"Your wife! Yours! Come now, I like that! It's against the law of this
narrow-minded country for a woman to have two husbands. You're a
magistrate and ought to know. Don't call names, and do keep your
temper--violent language is unbecoming a gentleman and a baronet. Inez,
what does he mean by calling Ethel his wife?"

"She is his wife," Inez answers, her black eyes glittering.