A thousand circumstances presented themselves to his mind.

This, then, was why Madaline had so persistently--and, to his mind, so strangely--refused his love.

This was why she had talked incessantly of the distance between them--of her own unworthiness to be his wife.

He bad thought that she alluded merely to her poverty, whereas it was her birth and parentage she referred to.
How cleverly, how cruelly Philippa had deceived them both--Philippa, his old friend and companion, his sister in all but name! He could see now a thousand instances in which Madaline and himself had played at cross purposes--a thousand instances in which the poor girl had alluded to her parent's sin, and he had thought she was speaking of her poverty.

It was a cruel vengeance, for, before he had read the letter through, he knew that if the story were correct, she could be his wife in name only--that they must part.