That gentleman confirmed what he had already learned. He said that several weeks previous a young woman had come there to obtain a copy of the record of a certain marriage, and that afterward a Chinaman and an elderly woman had signed a paper in his presence, testifying to having been witnesses of the ceremony.
Sir William reasoned that, since Virgie was seeking all these proofs, she would doubtless apply to the clergyman who had married them; so to Virginia City he straightway hastened, to seek the Rev. Dr. Thornton.
He found him readily enough. The clergyman appeared to be in feeble health, and received him with coldness and evident displeasure.
"I suppose you are somewhat at a loss how to account for my visit, Dr. Thornton," he remarked, in his genial way, and ignoring the frigidness of his host's greeting; "but I have come to make some important inquiries of you."
The reverend gentleman simply bowed, and then waited for his guest to proceed.
"You will be surprised that I have lost my wife and am searching for her," the baronet continued, thinking it best to come to the point at once.
"Which one?" demanded the divine, with an accent of scorn in his usually mild tones.
"Sir!"
"For which wife are you searching?"
"I have but one wife—the lady to whom you married me only a little more than a year ago!" Sir William replied in a voice of thunder, his handsome face flaming with righteous anger, though his heart bounded with new hope at the question.