“I—I—uncle, I am quite anxious to hang for that man!” panted the youth.
“But we are not willing to let you, Le. Your execution would be of no sort of comfort to Odalite, or any of us. Now let me go on. All these concocted and published falsehoods had but one end—to entrap us all into a false sense of security, and to allow you and Odalite to contract marriage on your return from sea. I have no doubt that within ten days after your ship sailed from Rio de Janeiro, homeward bound, he sailed from Liverpool to New York, under an assumed name, and that he has been in the country ever since, and lately in the city, watching for your wedding day, so that he might turn the tables, and snatch your bride from your possession at the very altar, as it were, and so humiliate us all in retaliation for his exposure at All Faith Church.”
“Oh, the demon! the demon! Any fate would be cheaply bought at the cost of sending him to——”
“Le! Le! control yourself! Remember your Christian parentage and training, and do not speak and act like any border ruffian. Remember also that we do not know the man has falsified the date of his wife’s death. We only think so.”
“Uncle, suppose the judge to-day should decide against us—should adjudge Odalite to be the wife of that devil, and give her to him—what then?”
“I do not for a moment anticipate any such decision,” said Mr. Force.
“Yet, it is possible,” muttered Le.
“But most improbable. The case, I think, from every point of view, is too clearly in our favor.”
“You think, but you do not know. Our thoughts have misled us up to this moment, and may be misleading us now. But admitting the possibility that the decision may be against us—that Odalite may be given into the custody of Anglesea——”
The father’s face darkened and flushed.