He looked at the girl and sighed. He would have spoken to her, but his wife raised her hand in warning and said, in a low tone:
“Leave her alone for a little while. She is very much prostrated, but will rally presently.”
“Elfrida,” he said then, bending over the lady’s chair, “Elfrida! can there be any truth in that man’s pretended claim to our child? Not that it will make any difference in the end, for I swear by all that is sacred, he shall never possess her! But you remember when we read that sketch of his life in the Angleton Advertiser, we noticed that the date of the death of his first wife, as given there, was some weeks later than the date of his marriage with the California widow.”
“I remember,” said the lady, faintly, for her heart, her mother heart, seemed dying within her.
“And such being the case, we should be thankful that Odalite’s marriage with Le was stopped just where it was. It would have been most disastrous if the man had reappeared and set up his claim to Odalite weeks or months after the marriage had been consummated.”
“Indeed it would!” replied the lady. “And yet, Abel, it may all be a fraud. He may have no claim on her whatever. If he could contrive to have published a false obituary of himself, could he not even more easily have inserted in the sketch of his life attached to it a false date of the death of his wife?”
“Indeed he could. The whole question of his right to Odalite hangs upon the true date of Lady Mary Anglesea’s demise. If she died before his Californian marriage, then is the Californian woman his lawful wife, and Odalite is free. If, on the contrary, as is made to appear in that fraudulent obituary notice, Lady Mary Anglesea died since the marriage with the Californian, then was that second marriage a felony, laying him liable to prosecution for bigamy, and to imprisonment at hard labor in the State’s prison, and his third incomplete marriage ceremony with our daughter only an awkward entanglement, which affords him a false excuse to lay claim to her, and which it may require the wisdom of the law courts to unravel. I have no doubt as to the final issue. We must be prepared to meet the villain in court to-morrow. We must prove the arrest of the marriage ceremony at All Faith Church, three years ago, by the appearance of the would-be bridegroom’s wife. Fortunately we have ‘a cloud of witnesses’ to that fact. Besides ourselves, all the young people who are our guests were present at the church on that occasion. Cheer up, my love!” he said, going over to the other side of Odalite’s chair, and bending over her. “Your perfect freedom and happiness is but a question of time. And meanwhile you will remain under my protection.”
“Dear papa! I cause you much trouble, do I not?” she inquired, tenderly, putting her hand in his.
“No, dearest! You never caused me any trouble in all your life! A scoundrel has given us both trouble; but it cannot last long. If the hearing should not be decisive to-morrow, I must ask for time and get the California lady up here. Also, later, that will take more time, I must send a trusty messenger over to England to ascertain from parish registers and tombstones the exact date of the death of Lady Mary Anglesea. But through all, as you are a minor, you must and shall remain under my protection. Take courage, love!”
“There is Le!” exclaimed Mrs. Force, as the hall doorbell rang, and the door opened, and a hurried step was heard approaching the drawing room.