A MAD ACT
“So thanks to the blind vanity of the French governess, the young
Italian and her pupil escaped her suspicion.
“We were Romeo and Juliet. We were Francesca and Paolo, Tasso and
Leonora.
“Ah! I have often thought since that it was well, in the interest of
poetry and romance, that the story of these lovers never carried them
into matrimony; for such delirious passion is not the love that lasts
through a long life!
“A disastrous day was fast approaching us.
“Luigi had been for some time suffering under the deepest depression of
spirits. Madame looked at him and sighed as if she understood his secret
sorrow and could console him, if he were not so morbidly honorable and
conscientious, if he were not so determined to sacrifice, to immolate
himself on the altar of duty and patriotism.
“One morning she left the room on some errand that her restlessness
suggested.
“In another moment Luigi was again at my feet, pleading with me now to
give myself to him, or rather to take him for myself, for my lover,
adorer and husband at once and forever.
“He explained in rapid, vehement words that he was recalled to Italy;
that he must go; that he could not and would not leave me behind; he
would rather die than leave me.
“All this, and much more, he poured forth in a torrent of words, to
which I only replied by tears.
“He went on rapidly explaining, lest we should be interrupted before he
got through. He told me that all was arranged for our flight. That
Anglesea would help us and keep our secret.
“‘Madame!’ I whispered, as my quick ears heard a footstep on the hall
outside.
“‘Meet me on the pier—four o’clock this afternoon. Come without fail, if
you care to save me from selfdestruction!’ he hastily whispered, as he
arose and resumed his seat.
“It was not madame who entered, however; it was Miss Murray.
“She bowed stiffly to the Italian, and then glanced searchingly around
the room. Seeing no one present but Saviola and myself—realizing that we
were _tête-à-tête_—she frowned and sharply demanded:
“‘Where is madame?’
“‘She has just left the room,’ I replied.
“‘Very improper, very irregular, most reprehensible! I shall write
to-day,’ she said, as she sat down bolt upright on the chair nearest us.
“Miss Murray was a conscientious woman, and she did her duty; there was
no doubt of that! but her words and her threatened action decided me.
“Swift as lightning through my mind sped this question: What will be the
effect of her letter to my father? Something that will separate me at
once and forever from Saviola? I could not for a moment endure the
thought.
“I looked at my lover, and my look said plainly as tongue could speak:
“‘I will meet you, and go with you to Italy.’
“And his eyes responded with equal clearness:
“‘I understand you, and I thank and bless you.’
“Soon after he took a formal leave of me, and raised Miss Murray’s hand
to his lips and kissed it with devotional tenderness as he bowed.
“‘He is a very perfect gentleman, as indeed why should he not be? A man
of his rank?’ said the half-appeased old maiden lady. ‘But all the same,
my dear, he is young and unmarried, and a foreigner! And, what is worse
still, he is a political refugee. Always suspicious characters, my dear!
Always suspicious characters!’
“‘But Prince Saviola is well introduced, Miss Murray, and he is staying
with the Middlemoors,’ I ventured to advance in my lover’s defense.
“‘Very true, my dear! But that does not prevent him from being a
foreigner and a political refugee,’ persisted Miss Murray, in her most
absolute manner.
“‘I cannot deny the fact,’ I admitted.
“And then I went to my room and packed a small handbag with the merest
necessaries for my journey.
“We still kept schoolroom hours for meals and had our dinner at two
o’clock.
“Madame drank claret and Miss Murray stout at dinner; but both equally
went to sleep in their easy chairs over the drawing-room fire, while I
was supposed to be busy with my exercises until the five o’clock tea.
“Now was my opportunity.
“As soon as my governesses were both asleep in their chairs, I left the
room, went up to my chamber, put on my outdoor dress, took my traveling
bag and left the house.
“Never was there before so perfectly easy and simple a flight.
“I walked down the King’s Road until I reached the new pier, and there
at the land end I met Saviola and Anglesea waiting for me. A close
carriage stood within call.
“Saviola was very much agitated.
“It was Anglesea who spoke first.
“‘My dear little girl,’ he said, as if he had been speaking to his niece
or younger sister, ‘I do not at all approve of these proceedings; but as
I feel perfectly certain that you would go on without my consent and
assistance, I think it is best, in the interests of your absent family,
that I should aid and abet you in what you do—see you safely, legally
and regularly through it. Now do not be frightened. We shall take the
train for London. Thence the night express for Scotland. And to-morrow
morning, as soon as we are over the border, you shall be married. I
shall not leave you until I witness the ceremony and hold the
certificate in my pocket. You will write to your father and plead your
cause as no one but yourself can do so well. Perhaps he will storm,
perhaps he will reproach you, but he will end in forgiving you—when he
has considered all the circumstances. Here is the carriage.’
“While Anglesea had been talking, Saviola had brought up the vehicle,
and now he handed me into it and entered himself, followed by Anglesea.
“We drove at once to the station and took tickets for London Bridge. In
five minutes we three were crowded into a coupé; and in little more than
an hour we were at London Bridge.
“Anglesea, who had resumed the role of friend, guide and protector to
the two young maniacs, took us to a quiet family hotel, where we three
got supper in a private sitting room.
“‘I assure you I do all this in the interests of my friends, your
relatives, my dear. I knew that Saviola would, sooner or later, run off
with you. So I determined to see you safely through it all!’ he
explained again, as we sat down to supper.
“When the meal was over, Anglesea called a cab and we all drove to
King’s Cross Station, where we were just in time to catch the night
express on the Great Northern Railway.
“Anglesea took a compartment for ourselves, and took along also a basket
of fruit, a bag of cakes, and a box of bonbons, for he knew that I was
still child enough to love sweetmeats. He also took half a dozen of
bottled lemonade and ginger beer.
“We none of us slept a wink that night, but laughed and talked all
night, and ate and drank at intervals.
“I did not at all feel the gravity of the situation. I had not left any
one behind whom I cared much about, or to whom I thought I owed any
duty. So, I had no regrets or compunctions on that score.
“As for my dear father, time, absence and negligence had really
estranged us, or seemed to have done so.
“I even thought my marriage might bring us closer together; for Luigi
had promised to take me to him as soon as he should consent to see me.
“So, without a regret for the past, or a misgiving of the future, I
yielded myself up to the joy of the present.
“It was a very happy journey. Excitement kept us all from feeling the
least sense of fatigue.
“About dawn we stopped at a wayside station.
“‘Here we are,’ said Anglesea, as the guard called out the name of the
place.
“We alighted, and Anglesea, keeping up his rôle, proposed that we should
go first to the hotel which stood on the other side of the track.
“‘We must get washed, and combed, and fed, my children, before we can
present ourselves before the minister,’ he said, speaking to us as if we
were indeed children and he were quite a venerable party. He was, in
truth, younger by a year than Saviola.
“We went to the hotel, the ‘Victoria,’ where two rooms were engaged—one
for me alone, and one for Anglesea and Savialo jointly.
“I went to mine to refresh my toilet. I had never dressed myself without
the help of a maid in my life, and hardly knew how to go about it.
However, I rang for the chambermaid, and with her assistance I took a
bath and made a change of clothes.
“After this I went down and joined Anglesea and Saviola in the ladies’
parlor. They took me to breakfast in the coffee room; and soon after
that we all three walked out in search of a minister. No marriage
license was required in Scotland.
“We found a church, with a parsonage adjoining.
“We all three passed through the gate leading into the grounds before
the house.
“But only Anglesea went up to the door and rang the bell.
“A servant maid opened to the summons.
“Anglesea spoke to her, and both disappeared in the house, leaving the
door ajar.
“After a few minutes Anglesea reappeared at the door, and with a smile
beckoned us to come in.
“We entered the hall, and were immediately conducted by our ‘guide,
philosopher and friend’ to the minister’s study on the right hand of the
hall.
“There stood a venerable man, with white hair, and clothed in clerical
black, to receive us.
“Very few questions were put to us, and our answers, mostly given
through Anglesea, were satisfactory.
“We were then asked to come up and take our stand before the minister.
And in a very few minutes the marriage ceremony, which I believed had
made us man and wife, was completed.
“Then the old minister gave us a solemn lecture on the duties we had
assumed. And then he made a fervent prayer for us, and ended by giving
us his blessing.
“Anglesea paid him a munificent fee, for which the old man gave him
thanks.
“‘And a marriage certificate, if you please, reverend sir. I am acting
on the part of this young lady’s absent friends, and I must omit no
necessary formality,’ said Anglesea.
“The demand was unusual; the certificate was considered unnecessary. The
old minister told us so, and added that he had no printed form and never
had had any.
“‘Then we will take a written form. Just write that on this day, in this
place, you have united in marriage, Luigi Saviola, of Naples, Italy, and
Elfrida Glennon, of Northumberland, England. Sign it yourself, as the
minister, and allow me to sign it as a witness. It would also be better,
too, if you could call in some member of your family to sign as a second
witness. I think I have seen the young woman who let us in peeping
through the door through the whole performance. Please call her as a
second witness.’
“The old man sighed and sat down to the table where his stationery lay,
and wrote out the certificate.
“Anglesea read it critically, expressed himself satisfied, affixed his
signature as witness, and then put the pen in the hand of the maid, who
had been called in for the purpose, and who now scrawled her name under
that of Anglesea.
“And it was finished.”