"Yes, sir; as you would not come to us I have been forced to come to you.

I know it all.
When will you make my child your wife ?" Yes.

In the abjectness of her misery the poor girl had told her mother the story of her disgrace; or, rather, in her weakness had suffered her secret to fall from her lips.

That terrible retribution was to come upon her which, when sin has been mutual, falls with so crushing a weight upon her who of the two sinners has ever been by far the less sinful.
She, when she knew her doom, simply found herself bound by still stronger ties of love to him who had so cruelly injured her.

She was his before; but now she was more than ever his.