“How is this, my Anna? What does it all mean, my dear?” inquired the old soldier.
Alexander, putting a strong constraint upon himself, bent forward to hear the answer.
“It means this, my dear sir: You heard Mr. Lyon say that at the time of his first marriage with this fair child he supposed the union to be perfectly legal; but that afterwards he chanced to discover that through ‘the accidental omission of an important form,’ that ceremony to have been quite invalid.”
“Yes! yes!” said General Lyon, impatiently.
“He had some reason for what he said. Listen, dear sir: When this man first prevailed over this poor child to intrust herself to his care, he seems to have meant honestly by her. He procured this license for their marriage; and he took her before a regularly ordained minister of the church. But by some strange oversight he never handed the license to the minister, who, being a Northern man and a new comer into Virginia, and ignorant of the law of the State which required a license to be shown before a marriage ceremony could be legally solemnized, never asked to see the document, but married them, as he would have done in his own State, without it. Months later Mr. Lyon discovered this oversight, and having tired of his fair bride, he resolved to profit by it in freeing himself from his obligations to her.”
“And so this is the license he took out for his first marriage, but never used?” inquired General Lyon, who for the last few moments had maintained a wonderful composure.
“Yes, sir.”
“But how came it into your possession?”
“Sir, the poor child found it among her husband’s papers, and cherished it with a fond superstition, as she cherished her wedding-ring. When she came to me with her piteous story she put that piece of paper into my hands as a proof that she was no impostor. I saw at once how it might be used to get her rights, especially as her first Christian name, like mine, is Anna. So I burned my own license and substituted hers and closed the envelope, which you, dear sir, unconscious of its contents, delivered into Dick’s charge to be handed to the minister. Then, using such arguments as I thought must prevail over a wife and a Christian, I persuaded Drusilla to take my place, as I said. And now I am happy to announce that through my means, and mine only, the omission of that important form in Drusilla’s first marriage ceremony has been supplied in the second, and that she is now unquestionably the lawful wife of Alexander Lyon.”
Drusilla lifted her head from Anna’s supporting bosom, and looked at her husband where he stood, enraged, baffled and covered with confusion. Then she left Anna’s sheltering arms and went towards him, and with outstretched hands, face pale as death, and beseeching eyes, she pleaded: