“You do! Then, by Jove, you know more than anybody else does!” he replied, with a laugh.
“We have received a telegram from the Rev. Dr. Minitree, of St. Sebastian, confirming the fact of your marriage with Mrs. Wright.”
“Oh, you have? But suppose at the time of that frolicsome wedding with the Wild Cat widow I had a living wife in London?”
“Man!” cried Elfrida Force, in horror and amazement.
“Yet such was the fact. My wife, Lady Mary Anglesea, was living in London at the time of my marriage with Ann Maria, or Mary Ann Wright, or whoever she was. I have actually forgotten her true name.”
“Oh, villain! villain! Your deviltry is unmatched in all the world!”
“Thanks. You do me no more than justice. And you must see by that I am quite worthy to be—your son-in-law; for, my dear Friday, that is what I am. I received the news of the death of my wife, Lady Mary Anglesea, while I was staying at Niagara, and just one week before the most auspicious day on which I met again my old ‘pal’ and her new family. So, when I married Odalite Force, I was perfectly free to contract lawful marriage, and so the same Odalite is now my lawful wife. ‘Read, learn, ponder and inwardly digest’ that fact, my lady, if you please.”
“You make these statements in reckless bravado. I do not believe one word you say. Why should I believe anything merely upon your authority, when I know, from all experience, that you have not the slightest respect for the truth? You told a falsehood in the church. You said you had never been in California in all your life, and had never before set eyes on the woman who claimed to be your wife. Now, then!”
“I was taken utterly by surprise, as you know—shocked out of my usual self-possession. It was a false move to have denied all knowledge of the Wild Cat. I am ashamed of the false move, but not of the falsehood, in your presence. By the powers, madam! why should I be? I only tell a falsehood. You live one! But come. Don’t let us go on complimenting each other in this absurd style. It is so very unprofitable. You do not believe the statement that I have made to you?”
“Why should I believe it merely upon your word?”