in Bennydeck
believes that I am free to marry him because I am a widow. You might
help me to tell him the truth."

"What!!!"

That exclamation of horror and astonishment was loud enough to have been
heard in the garden. If Mrs. Presty's hair had been all her own, it must
have been hair that stood on end.

Catherine quietly rose. "We won't discuss it," she said, with
resignation. "I knew you would refuse me." She approached the door. Her
mother got up and resolutely stood in the way. "Before you commit an act
of downright madness," Mrs. Presty said, "I mean to try if I can stop
you. Go back to your chair."

Catherine refused.

"I know how it will end," she answered; "and the sooner it ends the
better. You will find that I am quite as determined as you are. A man
who loves me as _he_ loves me, is a man whom I refuse to deceive."

"Let's have it out plainly," Mrs. Presty insisted. "He believes your
first marriage has been dissolved by death. Do you mean to tell him that
it has been dissolved by Divorce?"

"I do."

"What right has he to know it?"

"A right that is not to be denied. A wife must have no secrets from her
husband."

Mrs. Presty hit back smartly.

"You're not his wife yet. Wait till you are married."

"Never! Who but a wretch would marry an honest man under false
pretenses?"

"I deny the false pretenses! You talk as if you were an impostor. Are
you, or are you not, the accomplished lady who has charmed him? Are you,
or are you not, the beautiful woman whom he loves? There isn't a stain
on your reputation. In every respect you are the wife he wants and the
wife who is worthy of him. And you are cruel enough to disturb the poor
man about a matter that doesn't concern him! you are fool enough to
raise doubts of you in his mind, and give him a reproach to cast in your
teeth the first time you do anything that happens to offend him! Any
woman--I don't care who she may be--might envy the home that's waiting
for you and your child, if you're wise enough to hold your tongue. Upon
my word, Catherine, I am ashamed of you. Have you no principles?"

She really meant it! The purely selfish considerations which she
urged on her daughter were so many undeniable virtues in Mrs. Presty's
estimation. She took the highest moral ground, and stood up and crowed
on it, with a pride in her own principles which the Primate of all
England might have envied.

But Catherine's rare resolution held as firm as ever. She