HOW IT HAPPENED
“‘My dearest Elfrida, for my beastly stupidity I deserve all the
reproaches you can heap upon me. But not the utter reproach of
complicity in the deception that was practiced upon you. I never
suspected Saviola of a design to deceive you. But the Italian was too
deep for me. I went to insure you against mistake, not deception. But,
as I say, the Italian was too deep for me.’
“‘What do you mean?’ I cried.
“‘Saviola had studied the route to Scotland, with the design to deceive
you. There were two stations on that route of similar names. One was
Kelton, in Northumberland. The other was Kilton, in Scotland. Saviola
took tickets for us all to Kelton, when he made us believe that they
were for Kilton. We went by the night train, you remember. We got out at
Kelton, near the border on the English side, believing all the time that
it was Kilton, on the Scottish side. There, in England, you were married
regularly enough; but because it was in England, and you were a minor
marrying without the consent of your parents or guardians, therefore the
marriage was illegal, null and void.’
“‘Did Saviola tell you this when you met in Paris?’
“‘Yes, but I had discovered the fact, to my great dismay and distress,
before that.’
“‘When, and how?’
“‘In September I was going up to Scotland for a week’s shooting. I went
by the same train that had carried us, but in the daytime. When we
stopped at Kelton I recognized the station at which we had got out, the
hotel where we had stopped for breakfast, and the distant church, with
the manse beside it, where the marriage ceremony had been performed. And
yet I knew then—as I had not known on that fatal night—that we had not
crossed the border.’
“‘Then we were married in England?’ I wailed.
“‘Yes! To settle the point, I asked a fellow passenger how far we were
from the Scottish border. He told me just five miles. Still, I did not
then suspect Saviola of having wilfully betrayed us. I thought he had
confused the two—Kelton and Kilton—and had made a fatal mistake. And I
cursed my own stupidity in not having foreseen and prevented it. I
determined to seek you both out and have the mistake rectified by
another and a regular marriage ceremony as soon as possible. I did not
know where to find you, nor of whom to inquire for you, since your
friends were all in the Canary Islands. It was by accident only that I
met him in Paris, and learned the truth from his own lips, as I have
already told you.’
“He ceased to speak.
“Overwhelmed as I was I tried to make some little stand for my own
dignity and self-respect. I said:
“‘The marriage—in spite of quibbles—was a marriage in the sight of God,
if not in the sight of man. The good old minister who pronounced the
nuptial benediction over two young people who—at that time, at least,
loved each other, and who were free to wed—married us as lawfully, as
sacredly as all the united state and church could have married us!
Repudiated and abandoned as I may be, I am still the wife of Luigi
Saviola. And I will be true to myself. Though he has sacrilegiously
wedded another woman, he is still my husband, and I will be faithful to
him.’
“I had by this time recovered my self-possession, and felt some regret
at the paroxysm of emotion into which I had been thrown.
“‘Elfrida,’ he said, ‘this is sheer fatuity. You have no more right to
call yourself the wife of Prince Saviola than you have to call yourself
the consort of the czar. You are not a wife. You are free—free to accept
the love and devotion that I lay at your feet.’
“I felt my heart rising again in wrath. I did not wish again to lose my
self-control. I commanded myself, and, with forced calmness and some
sarcasm, inquired:
“‘Do I understand you to be offering me marriage Mr. Anglesea?’
“He took his hand from the back of my chair, over which he had been
leaning, and walked away with a look of petulance and annoyance.
Presently he returned to my side, and said:
“‘Dearest Elfrida, men do not offer marriage under these circumstances.’
“I turned and looked him straight in the face as I demanded:
“‘What, then, is it that you do offer your friend’s sister?’
“He winced slightly, but answered:
“‘All that a man may offer—under the circumstances—love, devotion,
protection. My heart and my fortune. The use of my country seat and town
house until—ahem!—such settlements as may secure your future from want.
Elfrida, hear me!’
“And again he poured forth a torrent of insults, which pretended to be
love, admiration, adoration—what you will, but which were gross insults.
When he had talked himself out of breath I only answered:
“‘Mr. Anglesea, you have offended me beyond hope of pardon. Leave my
presence at once, and never dare to enter it again.’
“He did not go, but stood there and recommenced his insulting suit.
“I went and put my hand upon the bell.
“‘Will you leave the room, or shall I call the people of the house to
put you out?’
“‘Neither, Elfrida. You will hear me,’ he said.
“I pulled the cord, and with such effect that a servant quickly entered
the room.
“‘Show this gentleman out,’ I said.
“The man bowed and held the door open.
“‘Thanks, Fritz. I can find my own way. You needn’t wait,’ said
Anglesea, with cool insolence.
“The man bowed and withdrew.
“Anglesea turned to me with a smile.
“Quick as lightning I formed a resolution and acted upon it. I darted
through the door leading into my bedroom, closed it behind me, and shot
the bolt to secure myself. I heard him laugh as I dropped breathless
into a chair.
“‘What is it, madame?’ inquired the nurse, who was seated beside my
sleeping baby’s crib.
“‘Nothing,’ I answered. And the girl, seeing that I did not mean to be
questioned, became silent.
“Soon I heard Anglesea leave the room and walk downstairs.
“A little later on I rang again and gave orders that if the gentleman
who had just gone out came again, he was not to be admitted to my
apartments.
“Then I began my preparations for leaving Geneva. I clung with all my
heart and soul and strength to the conviction that my marriage was
sacred. Saviola and myself were both single when we married. The
venerable minister of God who united us was most solemnly in earnest
when he performed the rites and gave us his benediction. We were
married, and no subsequent nuptials of Saviola could affect that
undeniable fact.
“Yet—though I felt so sure of the reality and sanctity of our marriage,
I was resolved never under any circumstances to be reunited with Saviola
so long as a doubt of the fact remained on my mind.
“I would go, as I had planned, to Weirdwaste, and live there with my
child, retaining my marriage name and title for the boy’s sake as well
as for my own.
“I made such progress with my preparations that they were completed by
nightfall.
“Anna, my Swiss nursemaid, agreed to go with me to England and remain
with me until I could supply her place, when I would pay her expenses
back to Geneva.
“After my tea was over that evening, and as Fritz went out with the
service, I told him to bring my bill, and have it include the night’s
lodging and the next morning’s breakfast.
“He left to do my errand.
“In half an hour he returned, followed by some one with a firm footstep.
I thought it was Anglesea, and flushed with indignation.
“‘A gentleman to see madame,’ said the waiter, throwing open the door.
“‘Did I not forbid you——’ I began, but stopped suddenly and aghast.
“It was my father who stood before me.”