"Oh, Lord! I know the fellow. Knew him before I knew you," said the woman, very unceremoniously appropriating Le"s arm.
Mr. and Mrs. Force led the way, supporting their drooping daughter between them.
Le followed with the California lady.
And Miss Meeke and the two little girls brought up the rear.
They pa.s.sed through the chancel into the vestry, where they found the rector had preceded them, to wait and offer such sympathetic condolence as he might.
"What do you think of this baseness, reverend sir?" inquired Mr. Force.
"It may be premature to judge before all the evidence is in, but it seems as if your late guest is an impostor, if not a criminal."
"I feel sure that there can be no doubt upon that subject."
"If I can be of any service, pray command me at any time," said the rector.
"I thank you very much. I think I will have to trouble you with two commissions. First, to tell our friends in there that, under existing circ.u.mstances, there can be no reception at our house to-day."
"I will do so."
"And, also, I must ask you to telegraph to St. Sebastian, as the woman advised, for further proof of her claim. Here is my pocketbook. Don"t spare it in the cause. Could you spare an hour or two to come up to my house to-morrow?" inquired Mr. Force.
"I will take the time, and make it a point to be there."
"Come to dinner, if you please, sir. You know our hour," said Mrs. Force.
"Thank you, madam," replied the minister, without further committing himself.
Then the party took leave of their pastor, and went out by the back door to enter their carriage.
Abel Force handed his wife, his eldest daughter and their guest into the first carriage, which he entered after them, the party of four filling the interior.
Le handed Miss Meeke and his two young cousins into the second carriage, and followed them.
And the little procession left the churchyard, and took their way through the grove to the turnpike road leading to Mondreer.
Meanwhile, the whole congregation of wedding guests lingered in the church, and gathered into groups to talk over the strange events that had just happened before their eyes.
They were not disappointed, those wedding guests. Far from that. They had got so much more than they expected! They had not only seen the bride, the bridegroom, the bridesmaids, the bride"s mother, and all their dresses, which had been made in New York, after the latest fashion; they had not only seen the whole marriage ceremony performed, and noted the demeanor of every one concerned in it, from the rector who read the rites to the smallest bridesmaid who held the glove; they had not only seen all these pageantries which they had expected to see, but they had seen a great deal more than they had bargained for. They had witnessed the performance of a startling drama in real life--the arrest of a marriage by the sudden appearance of the would-be bridegroom"s wife.
Now, they had got a great deal more than they had looked for, besides having something to talk about all the rest of their lives.
They could not leave the church, though the dinner hour was at hand, and most of them had far to go to reach their own homes.
They collected in little crowds to discuss the interruption.
"Who was the woman, did anybody know? When did she come to the neighborhood? Had any one seen or heard of her before to-day?"
Such questions as these went around.
At last some one said that the stranger had been staying at Miss Sibby Bayard"s for the last week.
And immediately Miss Sibby Bayard became the center of attraction and the most important person in the a.s.sembly.
The people crowded around her, plied her with a score of questions before she could answer one.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, at last, impatiently. "Yes! She has been staying at my house for five days past. She came from Califoundery, pa.s.senger in the ship where Roland was third mate. Yes! The boy fetched her to me, "cause she had business in this neighborhood."
"Did you know the nature of her business?" asked the fiery, red-headed, hot-tempered, little William Elk.
"Never dreamed of her doing this here. Thought she was a widdy woman.
Thought her business was money. Why, I fetched her to church this morning myself, without a notion that she wanted to come here for anything but just to see the wedding. And she was awful anxious to get here before the ceremony was begun."
"It is a great pity that you did not arrive before it was finished," said the tall, dark, gloomy Thomas Grandiere.
"So it were. I can"t gainsay that. And so we should "a" been here if it hadn"t been for the stubborn nater of that mule o" mine; for, you see, I had no other conveyance, and had to drive my wisitor here in the cart.
And, if ever Old Scratch got into a brute beast, he got into that mule this morning. Couldn"t get him out of a creep to save my life! And he balked so, coming up Indian Creek Hill, that I thought he would have upset us into the water--and it froze over! So we didn"t get here till after the ceremony was over. There, that is all I know about it! Miss Hedge and Miss Sukey Grandiere spent an afternoon and took tea at my house, along with her, and maybe they can tell you something," said the old lady.
And immediately she was deserted in favor of the sisters, who became, in their turn, the center of interest.
But these ladies had really very little to communicate.
Then the curiosity of the crowd took another direction.
"We were all invited to the wedding reception, but, of course, we are not expected to go now," said Mrs. Hedge.
"But it might seem like an offense if we didn"t," suggested Miss Grandiere.
And people were divided on the subject until the rector appeared, requested a hearing, and, with the apologies and regrets of Mr. and Mrs.
Force, announced that there could be no reception held at Mondreer that day.
So, at length, the congregation reluctantly separated and went home.
CHAPTER XXIII
MRS. ANGLESEA"S VISIT
It was late in the winter afternoon when Mr. and Mrs. Force, with their family and guest, reached Mondreer.
They were met by attentive servants, who were eager to behold the returning bride and bridegroom, and looked astonished to see the bride return in charge of her parents, accompanied by a strange woman.
"Where was the bridegroom?" was the question that their amazed faces put, though their tongues said nothing.
An accident must have happened. His horses must have run away and upset the carriage. Maybe he might be brought home on a stretcher presently.