'So we are to meet as strangers. I suppose that will be best. It would be impossible to ask for explanations. Poor Zoe! One does not know all her history. She told me once that she had been very unhappy. I have heard her crying in her room at night. Perhaps, she is to be more pitied than blamed. It is her husband whom I find it difficult to forgive and to forget. He is like a nightmare: he cannot be put so easily out of my mind.' 'Unfortunately, no. I, who have thought of him all my life, must continue to think of him.' 'You will forgive him, Philippa. You must. Besides, you have less to forgive. He has never offered his hand and heart to you.' Philippa blushed a rosy red, and confusion gathered to her eyes, because there had, in fact, been many occasions when things were said which---- Armorel was sorry that she had said this. 'You mean, Armorel, that he actually--did this--to you?' 'Yes. It was only the other day--the morning after we read the play. He came to the National Gallery, where I often go in the morning, and, in one of the rooms, he told me how much he loved me--words, however, go for nothing in such things--and kindly said that marriage with me would complete his happiness.' 'Oh! He is a villain--a villain indeed!' Her voice rose and her cheeks flushed. 'Forgive him, Armorel? Never!' 'Considering that it was only a day or two before he was going to announce in the paper the fact that he had been married for three years, it does seem pretty bad, doesn't it?' 'And you, Armorel?' 'Fortunately, I was able to dismiss him unmistakably.' 'Oh!' Philippa cried in exasperation. 'My cousin has been guilty of many treacherous and base actions; but this is quite the worst thing that I have heard of him--worse even than sending you his own wife, under a false name and disguised with a lying story on her lips. No, Armorel; I will never forgive him. Never!' Her eyes gleamed and her lips trembled. She meant what she said. 'Never! It is the worst, the most wicked thing he has ever done--because he might have succeeded.' 'I suppose he meant to get something by the pretence.' 'He wanted, I suppose, to have it reported that he was going to marry a rich girl. I had heard that he was continually seen with you. And I had also heard that he had confessed to an engagement which was not to be announced. My father has found out that his affairs are in great confusion.' 'But what good would an engagement of twenty-four hours do for him?'