‘I think I have,’ he said, hoarsely.  Then he remembered that he had told much to Robert Bolton which she had not heard.  ’I did tell her that I would marry her.’

‘You did.’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘Is not that a marriage in some countries?’

’I think nowhere,—­certainly not there.  And the people, hearing of it all, used to call her by my name.’

‘O John!—­will not that be against us?’

‘It will be against me,—­in the minds of persons like your mother.’

’I will care nothing for that.  I know that you have repented, and are sorry.  I know that you love me now.’

‘I have always loved you since the first moment that I saw you.’

’Never for a moment believe that I will believe them.  Let them do what they will, I will be your wife.  Nothing shall take me away from you.  But it is sad, is it not; on that the very day that poor baby has been christened?’ Then they sat and wept together and tried to comfort each other.  But nothing could comfort him.  He was almost prostrated at the prospect of his coming misery,—­and of hers.

Chapter XXIX

‘Just by Telling Me that I Am’

The thunderbolt had fallen now.  Caldigate, when he left his wife that he might stroll about the place after the dusk had fallen, told himself again and again that the thunderbolt had certainly fallen now.  There could be no longer a doubt but that this woman would claim him as her husband.  A whole world of remorse and regrets oppressed his conscience and his heart.  He looked back and remembered the wise counsels which had been given him on board the ship, when the captain and Mrs. Callender and poor Dick Shand had remonstrated with him, and called to mind his own annoyance when he had bidden them mind their own affairs.  And then he remembered how he had determined to break away from the woman at Sydney, and to explain to her, as he might then have done without injustice, that they two could be of no service the one to the other, and that they had better part.  It seemed now, as he looked back, to have been so easy for him then to have avoided danger, so easy to have kept a straight course!  But now,—­now, surely he would be overwhelmed.

And then how easy it would have been, had he been more careful at the beginning of these troubles, to have bought these wretches off!  He had been, he now acknowledged, too peremptory in his first refusal to refund a portion of the money to Crinkett.  The application had, indeed, been made without those proofs as to the condition of the mine which had since reached him, and he had distrusted Crinkett.  Crinkett he had known to be a man not to be trusted.  But yet, even after receiving the letter from Euphemia Smith, the matter might have been arranged.  When he had first become assured that the new Polyeuka Company had failed, he should have made an offer, even though Euphemia Smith had then commenced her threats.  With skill, might he not have done it on this very day?  Might he not have made the man understand that if he would base his claim simply on his losses, and make it openly on that ground, then his claim should be considered?  But now it was too late, and the thunderbolt had fallen.