Page:Edgar Wallace - The Man who Knew.djvu/335

 said. "It has been an awful life; it was Mr. Crawley's idea. He told me that if I married Mr. Merrill he would take me to see my mother and Jasper. But he was so cruel—"

She shuddered again.

"We 've been living in furnished houses all over the country, and I have been alone most of the time, and he would not let me go out by myself or do anything."

She spoke in a subdued, monotonous tone that betrayed the nearness of a bad, nervous breakdown.

"What does your husband call himself?"

"Why, Frank Merrill," said the girl in astonishment; "that 's his name. Mr. Crawley always told me his name was Merrill. Is n't it?"

Mr. Mann shook his head.

"My poor girl," he said sympathetically, "I am afraid you have been grossly deceived. The man you married as Merrill is an impostor." An impostor?" she faltered.