“Young man, explain yourself!”
“Willingly, sir; the sooner the truth is out, the better it will suit me,” Everet replied, haughtily. “I have loved your daughter for more than three years. Twice I have offered myself to her, and twice been rejected. When I learned of her engagement to the low-born boy whom you adopted, and whom I have despised and hated from the very first of our acquaintance, I vowed it should never be consummated. I worshiped her, and I resolved that I would win her at any cost. I have done so; she is mine, wedded to me this night, in the presence of yourself and hundreds of others, and I shall assert my claim in spite of you all. I hoped, in the excitement and confusion, and from my close resemblance to Huntress, that I should escape discovery until our departure from New York. If we had not reached the house quite so early—if the guests could have followed close upon us and kept Gladys’ attention from being especially called to me, I think I could have warded off detection until we were well on our way to Boston. She seemed turned to stone when she did recognize me, and realized how she had been duped, and when I attempted to reason with her she swooned.”
For a minute after Everet concluded, Mr. Huntress stood like one dazed by some fearful shock, his glance wavering between the still unconscious bride and the man whose victim she had become.
“It is a fraud!” he cried at last. “You have practiced a most damnable fraud upon us all; but I hope that you do not imagine for a moment that you can enforce your claim. The courts of New York will promptly annul the marriage.”
“Allow me to suggest, sir, that you will first have to prove your point regarding fraud,” Everet retorted, with quiet defiance. “Miss Huntress has been heard to affirm that she could distinguish between Geoffrey Dale and myself without any difficulty, and yet she went to the altar with me and pledged herself to me without a demur.”
Mr. Huntress groaned.
“Was that strange clergyman a tool of yours?” he demanded, excitedly. “Was that all a clever device of yours also?”
“No. Strange as it may seem, he was substituted just as I related to you, although it proved a most fortunate circumstance for me; but the telegram which called your pastor from his home was not a bona fide one. I never should have dared to face him, who has so long known Geoffrey, for he would have detected the trick at once.”
“Scoundrel!” said Mr. Huntress, between his teeth. “Where is my son?—where is Geoffrey?”
“I cannot tell you, sir. I think, however, he has also been invited out of town—for a few hours, at least,” Everet returned, a little smile of triumph curving his lips as he became more accustomed to the situation and realized his power.