"'Oh certainly,' laughed my guardian, 'and my lovely bride will not object to my being away, as she is in widow's weeds, mourning the untimely death of her first and only love. So, good day. I must rest and take a long and very refreshing nap to account for my unexpected recovery.'
"'Just so,' laughed the lawyer, and I heard the door close behind him.
"The conversation that I had overheard froze the very blood in my veins. I learned that I had been deliberately deceived and not only robbed of a large fortune, but had been robbed of my affianced husband. Worse than this, I had been induced to take a step that made me false to him and at the same time precluded the possibility of our ever consummating our plighted faith without violating the marriage laws, as under the law I was his aunt and marriage with him would have been a crime, for which under the law I could be imprisoned for a long term of years.
"My whole nature arose in revolt against the iniquity that had been perpetrated against me. I determined to find Raphael and explain the whole matter to him. I hastily wrote a note to my guardian and left it where he would be sure to find it, denouncing his treachery and informing him that under no circumstances would I ever enter his door again.
"I made my way into the city and disguising myself in male attire I succeeded in finding a position as cabin boy on a steamer bound for Liverpool. I was determined to find Raphael. I kept up the search for nearly fifteen long years, visiting almost every part of the known world, and at last found him at San Francisco, on the eve of starting on an expedition to the north polar regions. Before revealing myself to him I wanted to ascertain beyond any doubt whatever, from his own lips, in just what light he would regard my marriage to his uncle and my subsequent long career on the high seas in male attire. So I applied for a place on the Ice King and succeeded in getting the position of scientist. I cultivated the acquaintance of the Captain, secured his confidence so far that he related to me the story of his life, which gave the opportunity I wanted to draw him out, and soon learned, what I had come to dread, that the prejudices engendered by social usages were stronger than his sense of natural justice, and I heard my own conduct denounced as perfidious and vile. But for the sudden sounding of the alarm I must have fallen at his feet and thus have in all probability revealed my identity.
"But I was saved that bitter humiliation and now, after a long and perilous voyage, locked up with him on the same ship, I am at last permitted to pour my tale of woe into sympathetic ears, far away from the land where legal wrongs are honored while natural rights are regarded as disreputable."
Oqua had listened to my story without a single interruption, and with a sympathetic interest which drew me closer to her than ever. When I ceased speaking, she looked at me with a puzzled curiosity, which I shall never forget as she remarked:
"Your guardian certainly committed a great wrong against you, and under the operation of an awakened conscience, I can well understand that his remorse would be most excruciatingly painful, but you have not committed any wrong, and I do not understand what it is that you are feeling so badly about. The blame all rested with your guardian and the fact that you discovered his perfidy so soon, and at the same time discovered that the man to whom you were the betrothed wife, only awaiting the time set for the consummation, was still living, ought, it seems to me, to have been a source of rejoicing. While the deception practiced upon you was painful to contemplate, it brought with it a certain measure of compensation. Had you failed to make this discovery, you might have unwittingly violated the most sacred obligation, that to your betrothed husband. The wrong might have been much worse."
"You have mistaken my meaning," I said. "I was not under that obligation to Raphael that you seem to think. I had only promised to become his wife but I was actually married to another man. Under the circumstances I do not see how the wrong could have been worse, and I, as its innocent victim, was certainly excusable for feeling badly about it. The wonder is how I could bear it at all."
"If I was mistaken," said Oqua, "in regard to your relations to Raphael Ganoe, I fear that your explanation of the situation only makes the matter more difficult to understand. I certainly understood you to say that you loved Ganoe and that he loved you, and that you had both agreed to go through life as husband and wife. This you had a perfect right to do, and this agreement constitutes a marriage bond that cannot be set aside without sufficient cause, as long as you both live, and hence you could not become the wife of another man, without violating the most sacred of all obligations. And if by misrepresentation you were induced to enter into any such relation while Ganoe was living and true to you, such relation would be on the face of it, null and void."