“Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I’d have donemy duty by him. We can’t command our love, but we can ouractions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to makehim just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may imaginewhat I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I glanced backand saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the first pew. Ithought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked again therehe was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as if to ask mewhether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I didn’t drop.
I know that everything was turning round, and the words of theclergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my ear. I didn’t knowwhat to do. Should I stop the service and make a scene in thechurch? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to know what Iwas thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to tell me to bestill. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, and I knew thathe was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on the way out Idropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the note into myhand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a line askingme to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. Of courseI never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now to him,and I determined to do just whatever he might direct.
“When I got back I told my maid, who had known him inCalifornia, and had always been his friend. I ordered her to saynothing, but to get a few things packed and my ulster ready.
I know I ought to have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it wasdreadful hard before his mother and all those great people. I justmade up my mind to run away and explain afterwards. I hadn’tbeen at the table ten minutes before I saw Frank out of thewindow at the other side of the road. He beckoned to me andthen began walking into the Park. I slipped out, put on my things,and followed him. Some woman came talking something or otherabout Lord St. Simon to me—seemed to me from the little I heardas if he had a little secret of his own before marriage also—butI managed to get away from her and soon overtook Frank. Wegot into a cab together, and away we drove to some lodgings hehad taken in Gordon Square, and that was my true wedding afterall those years of waiting. Frank had been a prisoner among theApaches, had escaped, came on to ’Frisco, found that I had givenhim up for dead and had gone to England, followed me there,and had come upon me at last on the very morning of my secondwedding.”
“I saw it in a paper,” explained the American. “It gave the nameand the church but not where the lady lived.”
“Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank wasall for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if Ishould like to vanish away and never see any of them again—justsending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It wasawful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting round thatbreakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So Frank tookmy wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of them, sothat I should not be traced, and dropped them away somewherewhere no one could find them. It is likely that we should havegone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good gentleman, Mr.
Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how he found usis more than I can think, and he showed us very clearly and kindlythat I was wrong and that Frank was right, and that we shouldbe putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so secret. Then heoffered to give us a chance of talking to Lord St. Simon alone, andso we came right away round to his rooms at once. Now, Robert,you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if I have given you pain,and I hope that you do not think very meanly of me.”
Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, buthad listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to thislong narrative.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but it is not my custom to discuss mymost intimate personal affairs in this public manner.”
“Then you won’t forgive me? You won’t shake hands before Igo?”
“Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure.” He put out hishand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him.
“I had hoped,” suggested Holmes, “that you would have joinedus in a friendly supper.”
“I think that there you ask a little too much,” respondedhis Lordship. “I may be forced to acquiesce in these recentdevelopments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry overthem. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all avery good-night.” He included us all in a sweeping bow and stalkedout of the room.
“Then I trust that you at least will honour me with yourcompany,” said Sherlock Holmes. “It is always a joy to meet anAmerican, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe thatthe folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-goneyears will not prevent our children from being some day citizensof the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be aquartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes.”
“The case has been an interesting one,” remarked Holmes whenour visitors had left us, “because it serves to show very clearlyhow simple the explanation may be of an affair which at firstsight seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be morenatural than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, andnothing stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr.
Lestrade of Scotland Yard.”
“You were not yourself at fault at all, then?”