“Well, Mrs. Alexander—­or Mrs. Heath, I suppose I ought to call you—­I will not say more to dissuade you from your purpose; but let me advise you, as a sincere friend, to go to England and ascertain for yourself just how matters are, before you proceed any further.”

Virgie started to her feet, with crimson cheeks and flashing eyes.

“Go to England!—­to Heathdale! to find another woman queening it there in my place!—­to be brow-beaten and insulted by that proud family!—­to be disowned by the man who has already wronged me beyond all forgiveness!  Never, sir!”

“You could at least demand your own—­the money that your father left you.”

“And do you suppose I should get it?  I have no proof that my father ever left me a dollar.  Sir William has every paper in his own possession.  I have not a scrap even that would enable me to wrest so much as a pound from him as my right.”

Mr. Knight looked grave.  Certainly matters were not very promising for the injured wife.

“Well, it is the most incomprehensible affair that I ever heard of,” he said.  “I still think, though, that a personal interview would be the wiser course before proceeding further.  However, a proper notice will have to be served upon the man, and if there has been any misunderstanding, or he has any desire to contest your appeal for a divorce, he will probably make it apparent when the right time comes.  And now, regarding the best counsel for you, I think my friend, Templeton would work well for you, and secure a bill with as little notoriety as any one.”

Virgie shivered at this business-like talk of “a bill.”  It was almost like severing soul from body to break the sacred tie that bound her to the man she so fondly loved, and nothing save the belief that another was occupying the place that rightly belonged to her could have induced her to take such a step.

She applied to Mr. Templeton, as Mr. Knight advised He, too, counseled further intercourse with the baronet, for, to his keen mind, also, the whole affair appeared more like a conspiracy on the part of enemies than a willful wrong perpetrated by the husband.

But Virgie utterly refused to hold any communication with Sir William.

“He will have to be notified regarding the proceedings about to be instituted against him,” she said, “and if he is guiltless of wrong he will surely hasten to make it apparent.”

In spite of her obstinate refusal to make further overtures, something of hope had been revived in her heart by the united opinions of Mr. Knight and her lawyer that some enemy had plotted to separate her from her husband.  She remembered what Mrs. Farnum had told her about the pride of his family, and it might be there was some foundation for the belief of the two gentlemen.  She could understand how that might possibly be the case as far as intercepting their letters was concerned, but those other facts of the long engagement and the marriage with Miss Stanhope were things which she could not explain by any reasoning.