You are not a villain, you are a dastard." Mr.Steele bowed in a way which turned the opprobrium into a seeming compliment.
"I have suffered so many wrongs at your hands that I can not wonder at suffering this one more." Then slowly and with a short look at her: "The woman who has queened it so long in C---- society can not wish to undergo the charge of bigamy ?" "You will bring such a charge ?" "Certainly, if she does not voluntarily quit her false position, and, accepting the protection of the man whose name is really hers, go from this house at once." At this alternative, uttered with icy deliberation, Mrs.Packard recoiled with a sharp cry; but the mayor thrust a sudden sarcastic query at his opponent: "Which name?
Steele or Brainard?
You acknowledged both." "My real name is Brainard; therefore, it is also hers.

But I shall be content if she will take my present one of Steele.

More than that, I shall be content if she will honestly accept from my hands a place of refuge where I swear she shall remain unmolested by me till this matter can be legally settled.

I do not wish to make myself hateful to her, for I anticipate the day when she will be my wife in heart as she is now in law." "Never!" The word rang out in true womanly revolt.

"I will die before that day ever comes to separate me from the man I love and the child who calls me mother.