custom and then i went to chapel one morning and married him in secret because mother didn t care about him and i didn t either by that time and then he quarrelled with me and just before you and i came to london he went away to then i saw a soldier i never knew his name but i fell in love with him because i am so quick at that still as it was wrong i tried not to think of him and wouldn t look at him when he passed but it made me cry very much that i mustn t i was then very miserable and you asked me to come to london i didn t care what i did with myself and i came heaven above us said his pale and distressed face showing with what a shock this announcement had come why have you done such extraordinary things or rather why didn t you tell me of this before then at the present moment you are the wife of a man who is in whom you do a young man of forty not love at all but instead of him love a soldier whom you have never spoken to while i have nearly brought scandal upon us both by your letting me love you really you are a very wicked woman no i am not she still looked pale and rather frightened and did not lift her eyes from the floor i said it was nonsense in you to want to have me she went on and even if i hadn t been married to that horrid i couldn t have married you after you told me that you was the man who ran away from my mother i have paid the penalty he said sadly men of my sort always get the worst of it somehow now � i ll call you dear for your mother s sake and not for your own � i must see what i can do to help you out of the difficulty that unquestionably you are in why can t you love your husband now you have married him looked aside at the as if the of her organization were not very easy to define was he that black bearded typical local character i saw you walking with one the well beloved day the same as mine though of course you don t notice that in a place where there are only half a dozen yes that was ike it was that evening we he me again and i answered him and the next day he went away well as i say i must consider what it will be best to do for you in this the first thing it seems to me will be to get your husband home she impatiently shrugged her shoulders i don t like him then why did you marry him i was obliged to after we d proved each other you shouldn t have thought of such a thing it is ridiculous and out of date nowadays ah he s so old fashioned in his notions that he doesn t think like that however he s gone ah � it is only a between you i dare say i ll start him in business if he ll come is the cottage at home still in your hands yes it is my is taking care o it for me a young man of forty good and back there you go straightway my pretty madam and wait till your husband comes to make it up with you i won t go i don t want him to come she sobbed i want to stay here or anywhere except where he can come you will get over that now go back to the flat there s a dear and be ready in one hour waiting in the hall for me i don t want to but i say you shall she found it was no use to precisely at the moment appointed he met her there himself only with a and umbrella she with a box and other things directing the porter to put and her into a four wheeled cab for the railway station he walked out of the door and kept looking behind till he saw the cab approaching he then entered beside the astonished girl and onward they went together they sat opposite each other in an empty and the tedious railway journey began regarding her closely now by the light of her revelation he wondered at himself for never her secret whenever he the well beloved looked at her the girl s eyes grew rebellious and at last she wept i don t want to go to him she sobbed in a repressed voice was almost as much distressed as she why did you put yourself and me in such a position he said bitterly it is no use to regret it now and i can t say that i do it affords me a way out of a trying position even if you had not been married to him you would not have married me yes i would sir what you would you said you wouldn t not long ago i like you better now i like you more and more sighed for he was not much older than she that in his development rendering him the most of god s creatures was his standing misfortune a proposal to her which crossed his mind was dismissed as particularly to an inexperienced fellow and one who was by race and traditions almost a little more passed between the twain on that wretched never to be forgotten day or whoever the a young man of forty love queen of his isle might have been was him sharply as she knew but too well how to punish her when they from the to the stable mood when was it to end � 