"I have come, if you will excuse me, to ask you a question about yourself." She started, and looked at me keenly over her spectacles.

I had evidently taken her by surprise.
"What is the question ?" she inquired.
"I now know for the first time, madam, that your name is Macallan," I said.

"Your son has married me under the name of Woodville.

The only honorable explanation of this circumstance, so far as I know, is that my husband is your son by a first marriage.

The happiness of my life is at stake.