your reply."

"How can I make answer thereto?" she said; "for what know I of the
private motions of the mind of Sir Christopher?"

"At least, you can tell the purpose wherefor you came?"

"It was with no evil intent. I had no motive wherefor I need be
ashamed before God or man."

"Then why hesitate to avow it?"

"I came influenced by like motives to those which have brought others
to this land."

"Know you aught of a report that the father of this Sir Christopher
did disinherit him, by reason of his long-continued travels in various
parts of Europe?"

"Supposing him to be dead," said the lady; "I cannot deny it, and
therefore will not."

"What know you of any wife or wives he may have had?"

"I know nothing of them."

"What!" interrupted Dudley: "hath he not confessed unto thee that he
married a wife on his travels, from whom he was divorced, and that she
is long since dead?"

"Ye do strive to put words into my mouth, and to entangle me in my
talk," said the lady. "Call you this justice?"

"We are the interrogators, madam," said Dudley. Looking at Winthrop,
he saw that the Governor had fallen back in his seat, with his eyes
cast upon the floor, and was silent, as if tired of his part of the
examination, and willing to relinquish it to others. Observing this,
the Deputy proceeded.

"May it please you, madam, to answer the question?"

"Heaven help me," she said. "My poor brain is so bewildered that I
hardly know what it is."

"Thou hast a treacherous memory," answered Dudley; "but I will repeat
it. It was concerning certain confessions about this Gardiner's wife."

"What confessions?" said the lady.

"Prevaricate not, nor think to blind me," he answered. "The facts are
of public notoriety, and it will not profit to deny them."

"If I deny them I am not to be believed, and the denial would only
bring down upon my head additional insult; then why tempt so hard a
fate? Tell me what you would have me say, and I will endeavor to
conform to your wishes."

"Woman!" said Dudley, sternly, "trifle not. Answer me--aye, or nay."

"Thou hast thine answer," said the lady, with some spirit, as if
goaded into resistance by the severity of the treatment.

"I am content," said Dudley. "Thou knowest that falsehood were in
vain."

"Madam," now took up Endicott the word, "we have not as yet been
favored with your name."

"It is Geraldine De Vaux."

"Hast never another?"

"What mean you, sir!" she exclaimed,