"
Miriam listened to this rattle with a face of infinite contempt.
"Silly child! It will ruin your prospects for life. Sir Roger will never
marry you now."
"No," said Mollie, composedly, "I don't think he will; for the simple
reason that I wouldn't have him."
"Wouldn't have him? What do you mean?"
"What I say, auntie. I wouldn't marry him, or anybody else, just now. I
mean to find out who is my husband first."
"Do they know this extraordinary story?"
Mollie laughed.
"No, poor things! And he and guardy are dying by inches of curiosity.
Guardy has concocted a story, and tells it with his blandest air to
everybody; and everybody smiles, and bows, and listens, and nobody
believes a word of it. And that odious Mrs. Carl--there's no keeping her
in the dark. She has the cunning of a serpent, that woman. She has an
inkling of the truth, already."
"How?"
"Well, Mr. Rashleigh--the clergyman, you know, who was abducted to marry
us--was at a dinner-party this very day--or, rather, yesterday, for it's
two in the morning now--and at dinner he related his whole wonderful
adventure.
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