"Forged it? It must be some sort of a certificate then."
The facts of life, though not the names that many of them were called by, were known to Peewee. The circles he had lived in were those where people broke the laws. He had known of men who married several wives without formalities of divorce; it had been very plain that, in such a case, the first wife was respected and the others regarded as unfortunate. Would Beman, it had suddenly occurred to him upon the street, allow his granddaughter to be threatened publicly with that kind of misfortune? Beman had wanted to separate Markyn from his wife, but he had not been willing there should be a scandal. Lampert was preparing scandal. Peewee had not consciously weighed these things, but he had felt that if Beman knew what was going on he would not like it.
He saw with satisfaction Beman get up onto his stiff old legs and move irritably about the room. He looked bigger and more threatening standing up than in his chair. The gray skin of his face whitened and his voice was angry.
