"
"No. She was very clever."
"But _why?_ For God's sake, why? Why should she lie to me? I had never
harmed her. We were married. I could give you a home. She knew it. I
told her. Why should she do this senseless, horrible thing?"
She looked at him with wide eyes and stammered,
"Don't--don't you know?"
A sense of some hitherto undreamed horror came to him with that
stammering whisper. The spur of it brought some of his firmness back.
"I do not know. There must have been a reason. You must tell me."
He forced her, through sheer will, to lift her eyes to his. They were
startled and sullen. With a start he saw, what he had missed before,
that this woman, his wife, was a stranger. But he had himself well in
hand now and his gaze did not falter. There was no escaping its demands.
Her answer came in a little burst of defiance.
"Yes, there was a reason. You may as well know it. Your letter and your
coming were both too late. I was married."
The doctor was not quick enough for this--
"Yes, of course you were, but--"
"Oh, not to you! Can't you understand? I was married to another man.
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