“You mean to hold me to it—a real marriage to-day at Shipton! You and your father and Ingot tricked me into this.”
“He was a real Judge, and it was a real marriage.”
“It is a fraud, and I’ll unmask it,” Carnac declared in anger.
“It would be difficult to prove. You signed our names in the hotel register as Mr. and Mrs. Carnac Grier. I mean to stick to that name—Mrs. Carnac Grier. I’ll make you a good wife, Carnac—do believe it.
“I’ll believe nothing but the worst of you ever. I’ll fight the thing out, by God!”
She shook her head and smiled. “I meant you to marry me, when you saved my life from the streetcar. I never saw but one man I wanted to marry, and you are that man, Carnac. You wouldn’t ask me, so I made you marry me. You could go farther and fare worse. Come, take me home—take me home, my love. I want you to love me.”
“You little devil!” Carnac declared. “I’d rather cut my own throat. I’m going to have a divorce. I’m going to teach you and the others a lesson you won’t forget.”
“There isn’t a jury in the United States you could convince after what you’ve done. You’ve made it impossible. Go to Judge Grimshaw and see what he will say. Go and ask the hotel people and see what they will say. You’re my husband, and I mean you shall live with me, and I’ll love you better than any woman on earth can love you.... Won’t you?” She held out her hand.
With an angry exclamation, Carnac refused it, and then she suddenly turned on her heel, slipped round a corner and was gone.
Carnac was dumbfounded. He did not know what to do. He went dazedly home, and slept little that night. The next day he went out to Shipton and saw Judge Grimshaw and told him the whole tale. The Judge shook his head.