He became suddenly all devoted attention, as she artfully unfolded to him just as much of her nefarious plan as was absolutely necessary to secure his co-operation in it. The whole of her scheme in all its diabolical wickedness she dared not expose to his honest soul.
She told him now that she had set her mind on a harmless practical joke, to win a wager with Emma Cavendish.
She said that he must so with her to see the Rev. Mr. Borden, rector of St. —— Church, and ask him to perform the marriage ceremony between them, and that he must give his own name as Mr. Alden Lytton, attorney at law, Richmond, Virginia, and give her name as it was—Mrs. Mary Grey, of the same city. And that they must be married under those names.
The young man stared until his black eyes looked big as old Booth's in the last scene of "Richard."
"But why?" he inquired.
"A practical joke, I tell you. Ah, how hard you are to manage! Why can you not trust me through a little mystery like this—a little practical joke like this?"
"I do trust you; but I am afraid that it might seem like a practical forgery to be married under another person's name," he replied.
"Nonsense! Do you think that I could be such an idiot as to implicate you in any act that might be construed into forgery, practical or otherwise?" she inquired, with a light laugh.
"Oh, no, certainly you are not the lady to do that!" he admitted.
"Well, then, what next? You look as solemn as a judge or an owl!"