“They had a big wedding, too—­all the neighbours were asked.  Margaret always liked to make a display.  I was her bridesmaid, Master.  I helped her dress and nothing would please her; she wanted to look that nice for Ronald’s sake.  She was a handsome bride; dressed in white, with red roses in her hair and at her breast.  She wouldn’t wear white flowers; she said they looked too much like funeral flowers.  She looked like a picture.  I can see her this minute, as plain as plain, just as she was that night, blushing and turning pale by turns, and looking at Ronald with her eyes of love.  If ever a girl loved a man with all her heart Margaret Gordon did.  It almost made me feel frightened.  She gave him the worship it isn’t right to give anybody but God, Master, and I think that is always punished.

“They went to live at Radnor and for a little while everything went well.  Margaret had a nice house, and was gay and happy.  She dressed beautiful and entertained a good deal.  Then—­well, Ronald Fraser’s first wife turned up looking for him!  She wasn’t dead after all.

“Oh, there was terrible scandal, Master.  The talk and gossip was something dreadful.  Every one you met had a different story, and it was hard to get at the truth.  Some said Ronald Fraser had known all the time that his wife wasn’t dead, and had deceived Margaret.  But I don’t think he did.  He swore he didn’t.  They hadn’t been very happy together, it seems.  Her mother made trouble between them.  Then she went to visit her mother in Montreal, and died in the hospital there, so the word came to Ronald.  Perhaps he believed it a little too readily, but that he did believe it I never had a doubt.  Her story was that it was another woman of the same name.  When she found out Ronald thought her dead she and her mother agreed to let him think so.  But when she heard he had got married again she thought she’d better let him know the truth.

“It all sounded like a queer story and I suppose you couldn’t blame people for not believing it too readily.  But I’ve always felt it was true.  Margaret didn’t think so, though.  She believed that Ronald Fraser had deceived her, knowing all the time that he couldn’t make her his lawful wife.  She turned against him and hated him just as much as she had loved him before.

“Ronald Fraser went away with his real wife, and in less than a year word came of his death.  They said he just died of a broken heart, nothing more nor less.

“Margaret came home to her father’s house.  From the day that she went over its threshold, she never came out until she was carried out in her coffin three years ago.  Not a soul outside of her own family ever saw her again.  I went to see her, but Janet told me she wouldn’t see me.  It was foolish of Margaret to act so.  She hadn’t done anything real wrong; and everybody was sorry for her and would have helped her all they could.  But I reckon pity cut her as deep as blame could have done, and deeper, because you see, Master, she was so proud she couldn’t bear it.