“‘Do not say that, Elfrida. I lay my life at your feet!’
“‘No more of that! Your every word insults me! And you could come here with a false face and let me write to that man and never tell me what you have only told me now!’
“‘My dear Elfrida! Could I burst upon you suddenly with news that, for aught I then knew, might have killed you on the spot, or maddened you for life? No, none but a brute could have done so. I had to feel my way; to lead you slowly up to the truth; to strengthen you to bear it. That is why I allowed you to write to Saviola and to wait for a letter from him. That is why I watched your every tone and look. While doing so I perceived that your happiness did not depend on your union with Saviola.’
“‘Tell me this!’ I burst out, almost furiously. ‘How was it that you, who went ostensibly to guard me against misadventure, became accessory to some deception which rendered that marriage rite performed between me and Saviola of no legal effect? Tell me this, oh, traitor and hypocrite!’”
CHAPTER XXXIII
HOW IT HAPPENED
“‘My dearest Elfrida, for my beastly stupidity I deserve all the reproaches you can heap upon me. But not the utter reproach of complicity in the deception that was practiced upon you. I never suspected Saviola of a design to deceive you. But the Italian was too deep for me. I went to insure you against mistake, not deception. But, as I say, the Italian was too deep for me.’
“‘What do you mean?’ I cried.
“‘Saviola had studied the route to Scotland, with the design to deceive you. There were two stations on that route of similar names. One was Kelton, in Northumberland. The other was Kilton, in Scotland. Saviola took tickets for us all to Kelton, when he made us believe that they were for Kilton. We went by the night train, you remember. We got out at Kelton, near the border on the English side, believing all the time that it was Kilton, on the Scottish side. There, in England, you were married regularly enough; but because it was in England, and you were a minor marrying without the consent of your parents or guardians, therefore the marriage was illegal, null and void.’
“‘Did Saviola tell you this when you met in Paris?’
“‘Yes, but I had discovered the fact, to my great dismay and distress, before that.’