The heavy-eyed youth who stood braced against the wall uncertainly looked into Michael’s face with an impudent laugh.
“Well, parson, what’s the grouch? Are you the devil or an angel sent to bring retribution?” He ended with a silly laugh that told the experienced ear of the young lawyer that the young man had been drinking heavily. And this was the man whose name was signed as Rev. Theodore Brooks, D.D., on the tawdry little marriage certificate that Michael held in his hand. His heart sank at the futility of the task before him.
“Are you a minister?” asked Michael briefly.
“Am I a minister?” drawled young Brooks. “M-my-m-m-mnster! Well now that get’s my goat! Say, boys, he wants t’ kno’ ’f I’m a m-min’ster! Min-ster of what? Min-ster plen-p’ten’sherry?”
“Did you ever perform a marriage?” asked Michael sharply to stop the loud guffaw that was re-echoing through the polished corridors of the apartment.
“P’form a m’riage, d’ye say? No, but I’m goin’ perform ’t a marriage tonight ’f the dead wakes up in time. Goin’ t’ be bes’ man. Say, boys! Got ’im ’wake yet? Gettin’ late!”
Michael in despair took hold of the other’s arm and tried to explain what he wanted to know. Finally he succeeded in bringing the matter into the fellow’s comprehension.
“Wedding, oh, yes, I ’member, peach of a girl! Stuyvy awfully fond of her. No harm meant. Good joke! Yes,—I borr’wed Grand’F’ther Brooks’s old gown’n ban’s. Awf’lly good disguise! No harm meant—on’y good joke—girl awf’lly set on getting married. Stuyvy wanted t’ please ’er—awfully good, joke—!”
“A ghastly joke, I should say, sir!” said Michael sternly and then the door was flung open by hands from inside, loud angry voices protesting while another hand sought unavailingly to close the door again, but Michael came and planted himself in the open door and stood like an avenging angel come to call to judgment. The scene that was revealed to him was too horrifying for words.
A long banquet table stood in the midst of the handsome room whose furnishings were of the costliest. Amid the scattered remains of the feast, napkins lying under the table, upset glasses still dripping their ruby contents down the damask of the tablecloth, broken china, scattered plates and silver, stood a handsome silver bound coffin, within which, pallid and deathlike, lay the handsome form of the bridegroom of the evening. All about the casket in high sconces burned tall tapers casting their spectral light over the scene.