mptoms came on, after I
left, Gordon took upon himself to disclose to the doctor that Agnes was
married to me, telling the circumstances as they had occurred. Dr. Mair
got frightened: it was no light matter for the son of an English peer to
have been deluded into marriage with an obscure and insane girl; and the
quarrel that took place between him and Gordon on the occasion resulted
in the latter's leaving. I have never understood Gordon's conduct in the
matter: very disagreeable thoughts in regard to it come over me
sometimes."

"What thoughts?"

"Oh, never mind; they can never be set at rest now. Let me make short
work of this story. I heard no more and thought no more; and the years
went on, and then came my marriage with Maude. We went to Paris--_you_
cannot have forgotten any of the details of that period, Anne; and after
our return to London I was surprised by a visit from Dr. Mair. That
evening, that visit and its details stamped themselves on my memory for
ever in characters of living fire."

He paused for a moment, and something like a shiver seized him. Anne said
nothing.

"Maude had gone with some friends to a fete at Chiswick, and Thomas Carr
was dining with me. Hedges came in and said a gentleman wanted to see
me--_would_ see me, and would not be denied. I went to him, and found it
was Dr. Mair. In that interview I learnt that by the laws of Scotland
Miss Waterlow was my wife."

"And the suspicion that she was so had never occurred to you before?"

"Anne! Should I have been capable of marrying Maude, or any one else, if
it had? On my solemn word of honour, before Heaven"--he raised his right
hand as if to give effect to his words--"such a thought had never crossed
my brain. The evening that the nonsense took place I only regarded it as
a jest, a pastime--what you will: had any one told me it was a marriage I
should have laughed at them. I knew nothing then of the laws of Scotland,
and should have thought it simply impossible that that minute's folly,
and my calling her, to keep up the joke, Mrs. Elster, could have
constituted a marriage. I think they all played a deep part, even Agnes.
Not a soul had so much as hinted at the word 'marriage' to me after that
evening; neither Gordon, nor she, nor Dr. Mair in his subsequent
correspondence; and in that he always called her 'Agnes.' However--he
then told me that she was certainly my legal wife, and that Lady Maude
was not.

"At first," continued Val, "I