d, with a faint attempt
at a smile.

'Yes;--Felix told me, and Roger evidently had heard about her.'

'Oh yes; Roger Carbury has heard about her from the beginning;--knows
the whole history almost as well as I know it myself. I don't think
your brother is as well informed.'

'Perhaps not. But--isn't it a story that--concerns me?'

'Certainly it so far concerns you, Hetta, that you ought to know it.
And I trust you will believe that it was my intention to tell it you.'

'I will believe anything that you will tell me.'

'If so, I don't think that you will quarrel with me when you know all.
I was engaged to marry Mrs Hurtle.'

'Is she a widow?'--He did not answer this at once. 'I suppose she must
be a widow if you were going to marry her.'

'Yes;--she is a widow. She was divorced.'

'Oh, Paul! And she is an American?'

'Yes.'

'And you loved her?'

Montague was desirous of telling his own story, and did not wish to be
interrogated. 'If you will allow me I will tell it you all from
beginning to end.'

'Oh, certainly. But I suppose you loved her. If you meant to marry her
you must have loved her.' There was a frown upon Hetta's brow and a
tone of anger in her voice which made Paul uneasy.

'Yes;--I loved her once; but I will tell you all.' Then he did tell
his story, with a repetition of which the reader need not be detained.
Hetta listened with fair attention,--not interrupting very often,
though when she did interrupt, the little words which she spoke were
bitter enough. But she heard the story of the long journey across the
American continent, of the ocean journey before the end of which Paul
had promised to make this woman his wife. 'Had she been divorced
then?' asked Hetta,--'because I believe they get themselves divorced
just when they like.' Simple as the question was he could not answer
it. 'I could only know what she told me,' he said, as he went on with
his story. Then Mrs Hurtle had gone on to Paris, and he, as soon as he
reached Carbury, had revealed everything to Roger. 'Did you give her
up then?' demanded Hetta with stern severity. No;--not then. He had
gone back to San Francisco, and,--he had not intended to say that the
engagement had been renewed, but he was forced to acknowledge that it
had not been broken off. Then he had written to her on his second
return to England,--and then she had appeared in London at Mrs Pipkin's
lodgings in Islington. 'I can hardly tell you how terrible that was