"There can be nothing to this--can there?" she asked, her lip trembling and her whole expression showing how eagerly she awaited his answer.
"Eleanor," he said, softly, drawing her onto his lap, and soothing her with the tenderness a mother would have shown an anxious child. He held her pressed closely to him for so long a time in silence that at last she became frightened She sat upright and, placing a hand on either shoulder, regarded him searchingly.
"Robert," she cried, aghast, "you don't believe--"
Then he told her the news which James Riley had brought him, and of his efforts to learn more.
"No, dear, I don't believe it," Gorham finally answered her unfinished question. "No power on earth could make me believe it until they proved it; and even then no power could take you from me."
"But it must be proved one way or the other."
"There will be no need," Gorham replied, with a lightness he did not feel; "I will find this man and will settle it for all time."
"He is doing this for money. Now that he has come out into the open, I can take care of him."
"But that won't do, dear. If there is any question about the divorce, your buying him off won't settle it, will it?"
"It can't." Eleanor rose and regarded him with an infinite tenderness. "It can't, Robert; you know it can't, dear. If the divorce is not legal, then there was no marriage between us, and what Ralph Buckner says or does cannot affect that. We must know the facts now, dear."
"In all probability the divorce was perfectly regular. It is questioned now purely for blackmailing purposes; but I will submit to that, if necessary, rather than have the matter go any further. Don't be quixotic and play into the hands of these scoundrels who have gotten hold of Buckner, and are trying to reach me through you, knowing well that this is my vulnerable point."
Mrs. Gorham was so long silent that her husband felt his argument had won.
"Eleanor," he said more calmly, "can you ever fully realize what you are to me? All these gigantic transactions which have fallen to my lot mean only so many contests with the world that I may bring my victories back to you. The struggle is inspiring, the strife is intoxicating while it is on, but how hollow the successes except for you! My life and all its activities are centred about this one inmost shrine in which I mean to keep you, unsullied by even the implied contamination which these blackmailers would bring upon you. I will fight them with their own weapons, and, thank God, I can ward off the blow."