least demand your own--the money that your father left you."

"And do you suppose I should get it? I have no proof that my father ever
left me a dollar. Sir William has every paper in his own possession. I
have not a scrap even that would enable me to wrest so much as a pound
from him as my right."

Mr. Knight looked grave. Certainly matters were not very promising for the
injured wife.

"Well, it is the most incomprehensible affair that I ever heard of," he
said. "I still think, though, that a personal interview would be the wiser
course before proceeding further. However, a proper notice will have to be
served upon the man, and if there has been any misunderstanding, or he has
any desire to contest your appeal for a divorce, he will probably make it
apparent when the right time comes. And now, regarding the best counsel
for you, I think my friend, Templeton would work well for you, and secure
a bill with as little notoriety as any one."

Virgie shivered at this business-like talk of "a bill." It was almost like
severing soul from body to break the sacred tie that bound her to the man
she so fondly loved, and nothing save the belief that another was
occupying the place that rightly belonged to her could have induced her to
take such a step.

She applied to Mr. Templeton, as Mr. Knight advised He, too, counseled
further intercourse with the baronet, for, to his keen mind, also, the
whole affair appeared more like a conspiracy on the part of enemies than a
willful wrong perpetrated by the husband.

But Virgie utterly refused to hold any communication with Sir William.

"He will have to be notified regarding the proceedings about to be
instituted against him," she said, "and if he is guiltless of wrong he
will surely hasten to make it apparent."

In spite of her obstinate refusal to make further overtures, something of
hope had been revived in her heart by the united opinions of Mr. Knight
and her lawyer that some enemy had plotted to separate her from her
husband. She remembered what Mrs. Farnum had told her about the pride of
his family, and it might be there was some foundation for the belief of
the two gentlemen. She could understand how that might possibly be the
case as far as intercepting their letters was concerned, but those other
facts of the long engagement and the marriage with Miss Stanhope were
things which she could not explain by any reasoning.

Still she kept hoping for some word during the time