‘Excuse me a little, I am not very well: but tell me everything--tell me the truth. Did you say that you were----married to this young gentleman?’ ‘She’ll say anything,’ cried Tom hoarsely. ‘She’ll swear anything. She’s not fit to come near you. Go away, I tell you, curse you--you shall have everything you want if you go away.’ ‘Be silent, Tom; at present she has me, not you, to answer. Tell me---- ’ ‘You call him Tom,’ said the young woman with surprise; ‘it’s perhaps a pet name--for his real name is Frank Lindores: and that’s on my cards that I got printed--and that’s who I am: and I can bring witnesses. My marriage lines, I’ve got ’em in the hotel where I’m staying. If you’re his mother, I’m his wife, and he can’t deny it. Oh, Frank! the lady looks kind. Don’t deny it, don’t deny it! She’ll forgive you. Don’t deny the truth.’ ‘The truth,’ cried Tom, forgetting himself in his heat. ‘You can see how much truth is in it by the name she tells you--and I wasn’t of age till last week,’ cried the precocious ruffian, with a laugh which again was like the fierce bark of the whipped hound. All Lady Car’s senses had come back to her in the shock of this horror. ‘You married her--in the name of Francis Lindores--thinking _that_, and that you were under age would make it void. If you’ve anything to say that I should not believe this, say it quick, Tom--lest I should die first and think my boy a----’ She leant back her pale head against the rocks, and one of those spasms passed over her which had already scared the household at the Towers: but the superior poignancy of the mental anguish kept Lady Car from complete unconsciousness. She heard their voices vaguely contending through the half-trance: then slowly the light came back to her eyes. The young woman was kneeling beside her with a vinaigrette in her hot hand. ‘Oh, smell at this, do! it’s the best thing in the world for a faint. Oh, poor lady! I wish I had never said a word rather than make her so bad!’ Lady Car opened her eyes to see the stranger kneeling with an anxious face by her side, while Tom stood, lowering, looking on. It crossed her mind that perhaps the boy would have been glad had she died, and this disclosure been buried with her. The stab of this thought was so keen that she came completely to herself, restored by that sharp remedy of superior pain. ‘I do not think she is bad,’ she said faintly. ‘I think she has an honest face. Tom, is that true?’ ‘It’s all a piece of nonsense, mother, as I told you. It was just to please her. She was not too particular--to have the show of a wedding, that was all. She knew very well----’ The girl struggled to her feet. She seized him by the arm and shook him in her passion. ‘I’ll tear your eyes out,’ she cried, ‘if you speak like that of me! Oh, lady! we’re married as safe as any clergyman could marry two people.’ ‘You fool!’ cried Tom, ‘there’s no such person as Frank Lindores. And I wasn’t of age.’