“Far be it from me to say what a woman might or might not do if she took it into her pretty head; but I don’t think there’s any woman who would, or who would ever think she had the right to, do that with me. There are women, lots of them I am afraid, who answer the bill on the irregular union or intrigue side; but I should certainly be astonished if any of them ever set out to claim a right. Now I have made a clean breast of it. Won’t you tell me what all this is about?” The other looked at him steadily, as though to see how he took it, as he answered: “There is, I am told, a woman in New York who is passing herself off as your wife!” Athlyne sprang to his feet and cried out: “What!” “That’s what I took it to mean! By the way--” this was said as if it was a sudden idea “I take it that your mother is not alive. I had it in my mind that she died shortly after you were born?” “Unhappily that is so!” “There is no dowager Countess?” “Not for more than thirty years. Why?” “The letter says ‘Countess of Athlyne.’ I took it to be your wife.” “Let me see the letter.” He held out his hand. Vachell took from his pocket--the only private storage a man had in the Bird-cage--an envelope which he handed to his comrade, who took from it a torn fragment of a letter. He read it then turned it over. As he did so his eyes lit up; he had seen his own name. He read it over several times, then he looked up: “Have you read it?” “Yes. I was told to do so.” “All right! Then we can discuss it together.” He read it out loud: “So Athlyne is married. At least I take it so, for there is a woman in New York, I am told, who calls herself the Countess of Athlyne. I know nothing of her only this: a casual remark made in a gossipy letter.” “Now tell me, Vachell, can you throw any light on this?” “Not on the subject but only on the way it has come to you. I had better tell you all I know from the beginning.” Athlyne nodded, he went on: “Whilst we were in the trenches at Volks Spruit waiting for the attack to sound, Meldon and I were together--you remember Meldon of the Connaught Fusiliers?” “Well! We often hunted together.”