"Because," answered Dudley, "she had discovered in the meanwhile that
she was to become a mother; and on that account, although she had
managed to hide her condition from every one except the negro woman,
old Myra, she dared not refuse to be openly married to Logan. As soon
as this second marriage ceremony was performed, she left Chestnut Hall,
taking the faithful Myra with her. They went to Philadelphia, where
they were strangers; and there, in September, 1777, Sarah gave birth to
a child which, mercifully, was born dead. She told your mother all
this, and also that once Logan, in one of his rages, because she had
been unable to supply him money, had struck her, and had taunted her
with having been his mistress before she had become his wife, asserting
that the secret marriage was a fraud, the man who performed the
ceremony not having been a real clergyman. He also told her that he had
always loved another woman, and that his only motive in marrying
herself had been that he might get control of her wealth. Then, at
other times, when he was in better humor--so Sarah told your mother--he
would deny all that he had asserted when angry, and would assure Sarah
that the clandestine marriage was valid. Your mother, remembering that
Logan in that last letter to herself had acknowledged that he had
wronged her, was convinced that the clandestine marriage to Sarah was
valid; and in that case, of course, her own marriage, three months
later, was not."

"Was no trace of the scoundrel, if scoundrel he was, who performed the
clandestine marriage ceremony, ever found?" asked Abner.

"Sarah never succeeded in locating him; but, years after, I, by
accident, ascertained that without a doubt----"

"What?" eagerly asked Abner, his heavy, bloodshot eyes lighting with
renewed hope.

"I found, my boy," answered Richard, sadly, "not what you hope, but the
contrary. Thomas Baker was the man's name, and he was undoubtedly an
ordained clergyman when he married Sarah Pepper to John Logan, November
19, 1776."

"What became of Sarah Pepper, or Sarah Logan?" Abner inquired after a
long, miserable pause.

Dr. Dudley did not know where she was, nor whether she was still
living. She had written once, he said, to her cousin, just before
Mary's marriage to Page, and had said in her letter that she herself
was on the eve of marrying again; but Dudley could not now remember, if
he had ever heard, the name of her intended husband. "But," Richard
con