My acquaintance with her is slight, but she is in a good position, and, indeed, wealthy, and has never troubled him.

However, she heard somehow he was courting you, and as I often visit Derby upon business, she requested me to come over here and warn you in time." "And do you think," said Mary, scornfully, "I shall believe this from a stranger ?" "Hardly," said Monckton, with every appearance of candor.

"Mrs.Walter Clifford directed me to show you his marriage certificate and hers." "The marriage certificate!" cried Mary, turning pale.
"Yes," said Monckton; "they were married at the Registry Office on the 11th June, 1868," and he put his hand in his breast pocket to search for the certificate.

He took this opportunity to say, "You must not fancy that there is any jealousy or ill feeling after fourteen years' desertion, but she felt it her duty as a woman--" "The certificate!" said Mary--"the certificate!" He showed her the certificate; she read the fatal words, "Walter Clifford." The rest swam before her eyes, and to her the world seemed at an end.

She heard, as in a dream, the smooth voice of the false accuser, saying, with a world of fictitious sympathy, "I wish I had never undertaken this business.