"I didn't!" she burst out, with sudden passion; "you know I didn't. I
told him everything: who I was, what I had done, what I expected to do
again. I pointed out the men--who were sitting there, whispering and
grinning at us, as if they were in the front row of the theatre--and
said I knew them all, and they knew me. I never spared myself a thing.
I said what people said of me, and didn't even care to say it wasn't
true!"

"Oh, come!" protested Jack, in perfunctory politeness.

"He said he liked me for telling the truth, and not being ashamed to do
it! He said the sin was in the false shame and the hypocrisy; for that's
the sort of man he is, you see, and that's like him always! He asked if
I would marry him--out of hand--and do my best to be his lawful wife.
He said he wanted me to think it over and sleep on it, and to-morrow he
would come and see me for an answer. I slipped off the boat at 'Frisco,
and went alone to a hotel where I wasn't known. In the morning I didn't
know whether he'd keep his word or I'd keep mine. But he came! He said
he'd marry me that very day, and take me to his farm in Santa Clara.
I agreed. I thought it would take me out of everybody's knowledge,
and they'd think me dead! We were married that day, before a regular
clergyman. I was married under my own name,"--she stopped and looked
at Jack, with a hysterical laugh,--"but he made me write underneath it,
'known as Nell Montgomery;' for he said HE wasn't ashamed of it, nor
should I be."

"Does he wear long hair and stick straws in it?" said Hamlin gravely.
"Does he 'hear voices' and have 'visions'?"