‘Yes;—­they have told me that.’

’Who has seen him alive?  I never said to you that I had seen him dead.  How should I?’

‘There would be a certificate.’

’Certificate;—­in the back of Texas;—­five hundred miles from Galveston!  And what would it matter to you?  I was divorced from him according to the law of the State of Kansas.  Does not the law make a woman free here to marry again,—­and why not with us?  I sued for a divorce on the score of cruelty and drunkenness.  He made no appearance, and the Court granted it me.  Am I disgraced by that?’

‘I heard nothing of the divorce.’

’I do not remember.  When we were talking...