was the first person to be thought of, and
that Dick must do everything that could be done to set us right. But now
it seems that is not the right view. Mamma hesitates,--she will not
speak. Oh, will you tell me what you think----!"

"About," said Lady Markland, faltering, "the divorce?"

"I don't seem to know what it means; that poor creature--do people think
she is--anything to him?"

"She is his wife, my dear."

"His--wife! But then I--am married to him."

"Dear Chatty, not except in form, a form which her appearance broke at
once."

Chatty began to tremble, as if with cold. "I shall always feel that I am
married to him. He may not be bound, but I am bound--till death do ye
part."

"My dear, all that was made as if it never had been said by the
appearance of the--wife."

Chatty shivered again, though the evening was warm. "That cannot be,"
she cried. "He may not be bound, but I am bound. I promised. It is an
oath before God."

"Oh, Chatty, it was all, all made an end of when that woman appeared.
You are not bound, you are free; and I hope, dear, when a little time
has passed----"

Chatty put up her hand with a cry. "Don't!" she said. "And do you
mean that he is bound to her?--oh, I am sorry for her, I am sorry for
her,--to one who has forsaken him and gone so far, so very far astray,
to one who has done things that cannot be borne, and not to me--by the
same words, the same words--which have no meaning to her, for she has
left him, she has never held by him, never; and not to me, who said them
with all my heart, and meant them with all my heart, and am bound by
them for ever and ever?" She paused a little, and the flush of vehemence
on her cheek and of light in her eye calmed down. "It is not just," she
said.

"Dear Chatty, it is very hard, harder than can be said."

"It is not just," said Chatty once more, her soft face falling into
lines in which Lady Markland saw a reflection of those which made Theo's
countenance so severe.

"So far as that goes, the law will release him. It would do so even here.
I do not think there is any doubt of that,--though Theo says,--but I
feel sure there is not any doubt."

"And though the law does release him," said Chatty, "and he comes back,
you will all say to me it must be dropped, that it is not right, that
he is divorced, that I must not marry him, though I have married him.
I know now what will happen. There will be Minnie and Theo,--and even
mamma will hesit