“Hey!” cried Teddy, starting from his slumbers. “Where are we?”
Dick and I looked at each other, and, seeing that we were resolute, he smiled and then yawned, while I let down the window and looked out.
Yes, we were entering a station, and in a minute or two more our journey was at an end.
“There will be a little delay while we get the van off the train and the horses harnessed,” said the Marquis, coming up to me. “In the mean time there is some one to whom I wish to present you.”
He led me to his carriage and there I saw a veiled lady sitting. Even with her veil down I started, and when she raised it I became for the instant petrified with utter astonishment. It was Kate Kerry!
“I believe you have met this lady,” said the Marquis, in his stateliest manner, “but not previously as my wife.”
“Your wife!” I exclaimed. “I have, then, the honor of addressing the Marchioness de la Carrabasse?”
“You have,” said Kate, with a smile and a flash of those dark eyes that had once thrilled me so.
“We were married yesterday morning,” said the Marquis. “That was the business I was engaged upon. And now for the moment I leave you; the general must attend to his command!”
I entered the carriage, and there, from her own lips, I heard the story of this extraordinary romance. The Marquis, she told me, had obtained an introduction to her (I did not ask too closely how, but, knowing his impetuous methods, I guessed what this phrase meant); this had been just after the end of the mission, and his object at first was to obtain information about me from one whom (I also guessed) he regarded as probably my mistress; but in a very short time from playing the detective he had become the lover; his suit was pressed with irresistible vigor, and now I beheld the result.