“Poor girl! No wonder she looks as if she had seen great troubles. I wonder she is alive. Well, I’ll not add to them! She treated me badly; but she has treated you worse. And afraid of me! Why, every one knows that my bark is worse than my bite—in fact, I have no bite. And you stuck to her when she had no friends! Oh what a treacherous old serpent was that Harper—harridan. Steady payment for nine years. And to treat my daughter so! And I actually gave that sour old maid a present for her kindness to Maddie. They did not know you were married to her?”
“No; scarcely any one know.”
“And what’s to be done! How is it to be declared, this marriage. How is the world to be told that Madeline has been humbugging them for the last two years as Miss West?”
“The wedding can easily be put in the paper as having taken place in London, with no date. It will only be a nine-days wonder. We can send it from the first place we touch at.”
“Ah, you are a clever fellow, Wynne. Hallo! the lights are going out, and we shall be in darkness.”
“But you are no longer in darkness respecting me.”
“Well, I feel in a regular fog. And so you’re my son-in-law!”
“Yes; there is no doubt about that.”
“It’s odd that I always cottoned to you.”
“You will not be harsh with Madeline, will you?”