Paul stepped to the door again, and called to Mrs. Drayton.
"Here, my good landlady, take my wife to her room."
"Room, sir, room? The gentleman didn't say nothing--"
"Take the lady to your best room upstairs," said Hugh, with a significant look.
Greta was going. Her step was slow and uncertain.
"Won't you say good-night, Greta?" said Hugh.
"Good-night," she said, so faintly as hardly to be heard.
"God bless her!" said Paul, fervently. "The days before her shall be brighter, if I can make them so."
"Paul," he said, "you and your wife must never meet again."
Paul Ritson turned red, and then ashy pale. A scarcely perceptible tremble of the eyelids, then a jaunty laugh, and then an appalling solemnity.
"What d'ye mean, man?" he said, with a vacant stare.
"Sit down and listen," said Hugh, seating himself, and lifting the poker to draw the fire together.
"Quick, tell me what it, is!" said Paul again.
"Paul, don't chafe. We are hot-tempered men, both, at bottom," said Hugh, and his eye perused his brother with searching power.
"Don't look at me like that," said Paul. "Don't try to frighten me. Speak out, and quickly."
"Bah! you take me blindfold to the edge of a precipice, and tell be to 'be calm.'"
"You are wrong. I find you there, and remove the bandage," said Hugh.
"Quick! what is it? In another moment I shall cry out!"
"Paul, did you tell Greta she was marrying a bastard?"
With one look of anguish Paul fell back mute and trembling.
"Did you tell her?" said Hugh, with awful emphasis.
Paul's eyes were on the ground, his head bent forward. He was silent.
"I thought you did not mean to tell her," said Hugh, coldly. His eyes looked steadfastly at Paul's drooping head. "I think so still."
Paul said nothing, but drew his breath hard. Hugh watched him closely.
"To marry a woman under a false pretense--is it the act of an honorable man? Is it a cheat? Give it what name you will."
Paul drew himself up; his lips were compressed, and he smiled.
"Because I had sworn to tell no one. You will read that secret, as you have read the other."
"Say, rather, because you dare not do so; because, had you told her, she had never become your wife."
"We shall see. My own lips are sealed, but yours are free. You shall tarnish the memory of our father and blacken the honor of our mother. You shall humble me, and rob me of my wife's love--if you will and can."