“Pray make no apology to me,” said Lord St. Simon bitterly.


“Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I should have

spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of rattled, and from the time when

I saw Frank here again I just didn’t know what I was doing or saying. I

only wonder I didn’t fall down and do a faint right there before the

altar.”


“Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave the 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 business

already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to hear 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 here and I met in ’84, in McQuire’s camp, near the

Rockies, where Pa was 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 to nothing. The richer Pa grew

the poorer was Frank; so at last Pa wouldn’t hear of our engagement

lasting any longer, and he took me away to ’Frisco. Frank wouldn’t

throw up his hand, though; so he followed me there, and he saw me without Pa

knowing anything about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just

fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and make his pile,

too, and never come back to claim me until he had as much as Pa. So then I

promised to wait for him to the end of time and pledged myself not to marry

anyone else while he lived. ‘Why shouldn’t we be married right

away, then,’ said he, ‘and then I will feel sure of you; and I

won’t claim to be your husband until I come back?’ Well, we talked

it over, and he had fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in