She left the path and moved whither her companion
was leading, over the stubby grass; it was wet, but for this she had
no thought.
"How long have you been living in this way?" he asked, turning to
her again.
"You have no right to question me."
"What!--no right? Then who _has_ a right I should like to know?"
He did not speak harshly; his look expressed sincere astonishment.
"I don't acknowledge," said Lilian, with quivering voice, "that that
ceremony made me your wife."
"What do you mean? It was a legal marriage. Who has said anything
against it?"
"You know very well that you did me a great wrong. The marriage was
nothing but a form of words."
"On whose part? Certainly not on mine. I meant everything I said and
promised. It's true I hadn't been living in the right way; but that
was all done with. If nothing had happened, I should have begun a
respectable life. I had made up my mind to do so. I shouldn't have
deceived you in anything."
"Whether that's true or not, I don't know. I _was_ deceived, and
cruelly. You did me an injury you could never have made good."
Northway drew in his cheeks, and stared at her persistently. He had
begun to examine the details of her costume--her pretty hat, her
gloves, the fur about her neck. In face she was not greatly changed
from what he had known, but her voice and accent were new to him--
more refined, more mature, and he could not yet overcome the sense
of strangeness.
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