h for vengeance melted
under the influence of these thoughts. The bitterness of despised
love, the shame and anger of desertion, ingratitude, and betrayal, all
vanished. The tears of a sweet forgiveness trembled in her eyes, the
unreasoning love of her sex--faithful to nought but love, and faithful
to love in death--shook in her voice. She took his coward hand and
kissed it, pardoning all his baseness with the sole reproach, "Oh, John,
John, you might have trusted me after all?"

John Rex had conquered, and he smiled as he embraced her. "I wish I
had," said he; "it would have saved me many regrets; but never mind. Sit
down; now we will have supper."

"Your preference has one drawback, Sarah," he said, when the meal was
concluded, and the two sat down to consider their immediate course of
action, "it doubles the chance of detection."

"How so?"

"People have accepted me without inquiry, but I am afraid not without
dislike. Mr. Francis Wade, my uncle, never liked me; and I fear I have
not played my cards well with Lady Devine. When they find I have a
mysterious wife their dislike will become suspicion. Is it likely that I
should have been married all these years and not have informed them?"

"Very unlikely," returned Sarah calmly, "and that is just the reason why
you have not been married all these years. Really," she added, with
a laugh, "the male intellect is very dull. You have already told ten
thousand lies about this affair, and yet you don't see your way to tell
one more."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, my dear Richard, you surely cannot have forgotten that you married
me last year on the Continent? By the way, it was last year that you
were there, was it not? I am the daughter of a poor clergyman of the
Church of England; name--anything you please--and you met me--where
shall we say? Baden, Aix, Brussels? Cross the Alps, if you like, dear,
and say Rome." John Rex put his hand to his head. "Of course--I am
stupid," said he. "I have not been well lately. Too much brandy, I
suppose."

"Well, we will alter all that," she returned with a laugh, which her
anxious glance at him belied. "You are going to be domestic now, Jack--I
mean Dick."

"Go on," said he impatiently. "What then?"

"Then, having settled these little preliminaries, you take me up to
London and introduce me to your relatives and friends."

He started. "A bold game."

"Bold! Nonsense! The only safe one. People don't, as a rule, suspect
unless