Words cannot depict the scene that ensued.
Blank amazement marked every face save one--that of the bridegroom, which was dark with wrath and hate.
For a minute no one moved or spoke.
Then two gentlemen found voice at once.
"Who are you, madam? And why do you come here in this unseemly manner to interrupt this service?" gravely inquired the officiating minister, addressing the stranger.
"What is the meaning of this outrageous conduct, Col. Anglesea? Who is this woman?" sternly demanded the bride"s father of the bridegroom.
Every man, woman and child in the congregation arose, stretched their necks and leaned forward to hear and see what was going on.
"The woman is a lunatic escaped from some madhouse, I suppose. She had best be arrested. Where are your constables?" growled the bridegroom, drawing the arm of his bride within his own and attempting to leave the altar.
"Stop that man!" cried the strange woman. "If you care for that girl"s honor and good name, stop that man!" she vehemently repeated, placing herself directly in the path of the enraged bridegroom and his half-stupefied bride.
"Begone, woman! You are mad! Will some one take this maniac in custody?"
fiercely demanded Anglesea, roughly pushing the stranger aside, and dragging Odalite after him, and trying to force his way down the narrow aisle, which was now fast filling up with the eager, wondering people from the pews.
"One moment, if you please, sir. Let me relieve you of my daughter, until this interruption shall be explained," said Mr. Force, taking the hand of his child, to draw her away.
But the bridegroom"s arm tightened around his prey, as he haughtily replied:
"Pardon me, sir! You have no authority over Mrs. Anglesea. She is my wife, and under my protection. Let me pa.s.s."
"Not if I know it--you don"t pa.s.s here! Not with that innocent girl on your arm, you don"t! Your wife, is she? I see that, and go one better! And that"s me! A man can"t have two wives, can he, Mr. Parson? This ain"t Utah, nor yet Salt Lake City, be it?"
"I think, Col. Anglesea," slowly began the rector----but the bridegroom cut him short:
"Your interference is not required here, reverend sir. Your ministry is completed. The marriage ceremony is finished. I hold my wife on my arm."
"Then this is a Mormon settlement, and a man can marry as many wives as he pleases, eh, gentlemen?" inquired the strange woman, looking around.
"Good friends! Pray let us pa.s.s!" the colonel expostulated, trying to elbow his way through the excited crowd that filled up the aisle, and seemed to wait with suspended breath the issue of the scene.
Two voices answered at once:
"No, sir. I think not. Mr. Force has asked for his daughter until this matter can be investigated," said Thomas Grandiere.
"Will you release the lady, at her father"s demand, and save us the discredit of using violence in this sacred place?" inquired William Elk.
"Oh, my Lord, there"ll be a fight!" exclaimed a voice from the crowd.
"Will some one be kind enough to take this mad woman in custody?"
exclaimed Anglesea, beside himself with fear, shame and wrath.
"In custody, is it? If anybody is taken in custody, it is that man there!
Yes, it is you I am talking about! It"s you, for bigamy! I wish I had got a warrant out and fetched a couple of bailiffs to do it, too! Why don"t you let this girl go? You might"s well do it first as last. You"ll have to do it, you know!" said the woman.
"Will you give me my daughter, Col. Anglesea?" quietly questioned Abel Force.
"No, I will not give you my wife!" fiercely retorted the bridegroom.
But at this moment the two st.u.r.dy Maryland farmers came up on either side of the man, and, each taking a firm grip of his arms, with gentle strength, released the half-swooning bride, who immediately dropped upon the bosom of her father.
"I shall hold every man here to a strict account for this outrage!"
fiercely hissed the furious bridegroom.
"Quite right, sir! We will be at your service at any time," said William Elk.
Abel Force bore his unfortunate daughter off to the side pews, where her mother, her sisters and her governess had retreated, and where they sat, confounded and overwhelmed by all that had pa.s.sed.
"Take her, Elfrida," he said, lifting the girl and laying her in the arms of her mother. "And do not allow that man to come near her. He has behaved badly in not giving her up, on my demand, until we can inquire into this matter. It may be that this strange woman is a lunatic, or an impostor. We shall see."
Mrs. Force made no reply. She could not speak. She took her daughter on her lap, as if Odalite had been a young child, and laid the pale cheek of the girl on her bosom, and motioned her husband to return to the group around the bridegroom.
"Odalite, darling, do not grieve. No wrong of any sort shall be done you.
You have your father and your mother, dear, and our faithful love shall never leave you," said Abel Force, as he stooped and kissed his daughter"s pale forehead, and walked away.
But Odalite made no sign.
"And you have us, darling, darling sister," said Elva, taking up and kissing one cold hand.
"And you have Le, as true as steel!" put in Wynnette.
"And, oh, I knew! I knew something was going to happen to stop it all! I didn"t know whether it was going to be a forbidding of the banns, or an apoplectic fit, or an earthquake, but I knew something would happen," said Elva, taking the bride"s other hand.
""Some outlet through thunder and lightning,"" added Wynnette.
"Oh, why don"t you speak? Why don"t you say something, Odalite?" inquired Elva.
But Odalite gave no sign. She seemed stupefied, benumbed.
"Let your sister alone, my dears. Don"t disturb her," said Miss Meeke.
Elfrida Force said nothing. She only recognized in this lethargy the merciful effects of the drug she had administered to her suffering daughter that morning.
Meanwhile, the scene before the chancel was becoming more exciting.
Col. Anglesea, furious, defiant, aggressive, but held in check by the surroundings; Abel Force, deeply offended, but self-controlled and dignified; Thomas Grandiere, dark, gloomy and determined; William Elk, red, fiery and threatening; and the strange woman composed, sarcastic and triumphant--formed a group around which the crowd a.s.sembled in the church were pressing as closely as possible.
"How dared you come here to make this scene?" fiercely demanded Anglesea.
"How "dared" I? Humph! I like that! Do you think I"m afeared of _you_?
When I have got the whip hand of you, too? I came here to take a hand in this here little game o" your"n! And I guess it"s my deal now! And I rayther guess as how I shall turn up the little joker! We"ll see presently!" laughed the woman.