"Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly.
"Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that Ishould have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind ofrattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I justdidn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn'tfall down and do a faint right there before the altar."
"Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leavethe room while you explain this matter?"
"If I may give an opinion," remarked the
strange gentleman,"we've had just a little too much secrecy over this businessalready. For my part, I should like all Europe and America tohear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man,clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner.
"Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank hereand I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pawas working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I;but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile,while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came tonothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pawouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he tookme away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; sohe followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anythingabout it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we justfixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go andmake his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he hadas much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end oftime and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived.'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'andthen I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be yourhusband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he hadfixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting,that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seekhis fortune, and I went back to pa.
"The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and thenhe went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from NewMexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how aminers' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there wasmy Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I wasvery sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and tookme to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for ayear and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was reallydead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London,and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I feltall the time that no man on this earth would ever take the placein my heart that had been given to my poor Frank.
"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 mayimagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, Iglanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of thefirst pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I lookedagain there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, asif to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder Ididn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and thewords of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in myear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and makea scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed toknow what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips totell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper,and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew onthe way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped thenote into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only aline asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so.Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was nowto him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct.
"When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California,and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, butto get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought tohave spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard beforehis mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind torun away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table tenminutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side ofthe road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park.I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some womancame talking something or other about Lord St. Simon tome--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a littlesecret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get awayfrom her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, andaway we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, andthat was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frankhad been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone toEngland, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on thevery morning of my second wedding."
"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 was allfor 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. Itwas awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sittinground that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. SoFrank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle ofthem, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them awaysomewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that weshould have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this goodgentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though howhe found us is more than I can think, and he showed us veryclearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, andthat we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were sosecret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to LordSt. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms atonce. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry ifI have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think verymeanly 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 my mostintimate personal affairs in this public manner."
"Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?"
"Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put outhis hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him.
"I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined usin a friendly supper."
"I think that there you ask a little too much," responded hisLordship. "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 andstalked out 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 that thefolly 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 when ourvisitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly howsimple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sightseems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more naturalthan the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothingstranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr.Lestrade of Scotland Yard."
"You were not yourself at fault at all, then?"
"From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one thatthe lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony,the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes ofreturning home. Obviously something had occurred during themorning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could thatsomething be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she wasout, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had sheseen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from Americabecause she had spent so short a time in this country that shecould hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influenceover her that the mere sight of him would induce her to changeher plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by aprocess of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen anAmerican. Then who could this American be, and why should hepossess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it mightbe a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent inrough s
cenes and under strange conditions. So far I had gotbefore I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told usof a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of sotransparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of abouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her verysignificant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlancemeans taking possession of that which another person has a priorclaim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She hadgone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was aprevious husband--the chances being in favour of the latter."
"And how in the world did you find them?"
"It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade heldinformation in his hands the value of which he did not himselfknow. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance,but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he hadsettled his bill at one of the most select London hotels."
"How did you deduce the select?"
"By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpencefor a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensivehotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate.In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, Ilearned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, anAmerican gentleman, had left only the day before, and on lookingover the entries against him, I came upon the very items which Ihad seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwardedto 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunateenough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give themsome paternal advice and to point out to them that it would bebetter in every way that they should make their position a littleclearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon inparticular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, Imade him keep the appointment."
"But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct wascertainly not very gracious."
"Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not bevery gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing andwedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and offortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifullyand thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves inthe same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, forthe only problem we have still to solve is how to while awaythese bleak autumnal evenings."
XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET
"Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window lookingdown the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rathersad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone."