"Go on," she said, haughtily, "and I will follow. Since I have been tricked into this affair so far, a little more of the same folly cannot matter, and rather than subject Mrs. Goddard to a public mortification, I will yield the point."
She made a gesture for him to proceed, and he turned to obey, a gleam of triumph leaping into his eyes at her concession.
Without a word they swiftly made their way back into the house and down to the elegant parlors where, at the upper end, the first object to greet their eyes was a beautiful floral arch with an exquisite marriage bell suspended from it.
On either side of this the bridesmaids and ushers had taken their places, and into the center of it Emil Correlli now led his companion.
And now ensued the last and most fiendish act in the dastardly plot.
Hardly were they in their places when the guests came pouring into the room, and the ushers began their duties of presentation, while Edith, with a sinking heart, but growing every moment more indignant and disgusted with what appeared to her only a horrible and senseless mockery, was obliged to respond to hundreds of congratulations and bear in silence being addressed as Mrs. Correlli.
It galled her almost beyond endurance—it was torture beyond description to her proud and sensitive spirit to be thus associated with one for whom she had no respect, and who had made himself all the more obnoxious by lending himself to the deception which had just been practiced upon her.
Once, when there was a little pause, she turned haughtily upon the man at her side.
"Why am I addressed thus?" she demanded.
"Why do you allow it? Why do you not correct these people and tell them to use the name that was used in the play rather than yours?"