"
"Yes, it would have been the manlier course, no doubt," the other
answered; "but I could not bring myself to that. I could not face the
idea of your justifiable wrath. I wanted to win my wife and keep my
friend. It was altogether a weak notion, that idea of secrecy, of course,
and couldn't hold water for any time, as the result has shown; but I
thought you would get over your disappointment quickly--those wounds are
apt to heal so speedily--and fall in love elsewhere; and then it would
have been easy for me to tell you the truth. So I persuaded my dear love,
who was easily induced to do anything I wished, to consent to our secret
being kept from you religiously for the time being, and to that end we
were married under a false name--not exactly a false name either. You
remember my asking you if you had ever heard the name of Holbrook before
your hunt after Marian's husband? You said no; yet I think you must have
seen the name in some of my old college books. I was christened John
Holbrook. My grandmother was one of the Holbrooks of Horley-place,
Sussex, people of some importance in their day, and our family were
rather proud of the name. But I have dropped it ever since I was a lad."
"No, I don't think I can ever have seen the name; I must surely have
remembered it, if I had seen it.
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