From South Africa he wrote saying he was not coming back; that I could divorce him if I liked.

The proof, he said, would be easy; or I needn't divorce him unless I liked, since no one knew we were married." For an instant there was absolute silence, and she sat with her fingers pressed tight to her eyes.

At last she went on, her face turned away from the great kindly blue eyes bent upon her, from the face flushed with honourable human sympathy.
"I went into the country, where I stayed for nearly three years, till--till I could bear it no longer; and then I began to study and sing again." "What were you doing in the country ?" he asked in a low voice.
"There was my baby," she replied, her hands clasping and unclasping in pain.

"There was my little Nydia." "A child--she is living ?" he asked gently.
"No, she died two years ago," was the answer in a voice which tried to be firm.
"Does Blantyre know ?" "He knew she was born, nothing more." "We were married secretly." "And after all he has done, and left undone, you want to try and save him now ?" He was thinking that she still loved the man.

"That offscouring!" he said to himself.