"Why do you think so? Do you go by those remains? I have seen them. My child was vaccinated on the left arm, and carried the mark. He had specks on two of his finger-nails; he had a small wart on his little finger; and his fingers were not blunt and uncouth, like that; they were as taper as any lady's in England; that hand is nothing like my son's; you are all blind; yet you must go and blind the only one who had eyes, the only one who really loved him, and whose opinion is worth a straw."
Dr. Amboyne was too delighted at the news to feel these reproaches very deeply. "Thank God!" said he. "Scold me, for I deserve it.
But I did for the best; but, unfortunately, we have still to account for his writing to no one all this time. No matter. I begin to hope. THAT was the worst evidence. Edith, I must go to Woodbine Villa. That poor girl must not marry in ignorance of this. Believe me, she will never marry Coventry, if HE is alive. Excuse my leaving you at such a time, but there is not a moment to be lost."
He placed her on a sofa, and opened the window; for, by a natural reaction, she was beginning to feel rather faint. He gave his housekeeper strict orders to take care of her, then snatching his hat, went hastily out.
At the door he met the footman with several letters (he had a large correspondence), shoved them pell-mell into his breast-pocket, shouted to a cabman stationed near, and drove off to Woodbine Villa.
It was rather up-hill, but he put his head out of the window and offered the driver a sovereign to go fast. The man lashed his horse up the hill, and did go very fast, though it seemed slow to Dr.
Amboyne, because his wishes flew so much faster.
At last he got to the villa, and rang furiously.
After a delay that set the doctor stamping, Lally appeared.
"I must see Miss Carden directly."
"Step in, sir; she won't be long now."
Dr. Amboyne walked into the dining-room, and saw it adorned with a wealth of flowers, and the wedding-breakfast set out with the usual splendor; but there was nobody there; and immediately an uneasy suspicion crossed his mind.
He came out into the passage, and found Lally there.
"Are they gone to the church?"
"They are," said Lally, with consummate coolness.
"You Irish idiot!" roared the doctor, "why couldn't you tell me that before?" And, notwithstanding his ungainly figure, he ran down the road, shouting, like a Stentor, to his receding cabman.
"Bekase I saw that every minute was goold," said Lally, as soon as he was out of hearing.
The cabman, like most of his race, was rather deaf and a little blind, and Dr. Amboyne was much heated and out of breath before he captured him. He gasped out, "To St. Peter's Church, for your life!"
It was rather down-hill this time, and about a mile off.
In little more than five minutes the cab rattled up to the church door.
Dr. Amboyne got out, told the man to wait, and entered the church with a rapid step.
Before he had gone far up the center aisle, he stopped.
Mr. Coventry and Grace Carden were coming down the aisle together in wedding costume, the lady in her bridal veil.
They were followed by the bridemaids.
Dr. Amboyne stared, and stepped aside into an open pew to let them pass.
They swept by; he looked after them, and remained glued to his seat till the church was clear of the procession.
He went into the vestry, and found the curate there.
"Are that couple really married, sir?" said he.
The curate looked amazed. "As fast as I can make them," said he, rather flippantly.
"Excuse me," said the doctor, faintly. "It was a foolish question to ask."
"I think I have the honor of speaking to Dr. Amboyne?"
Dr. Amboyne bowed mechanically.
"You will be at the wedding-breakfast, of course?"
"Humph!"
"Why, surely, you are invited?"
"Yes" (with an equally absent air).
Finding him thus confused, the sprightly curate laughed and bade him good-morning, jumped into a hansom, and away to Woodbine Villa.
Dr. Amboyne followed him slowly.
"Drive me to Woodbine Villa. There's no hurry now."
On the way, he turned the matter calmly over, and put this question to himself: Suppose he had reached the villa in time to tell Grace Carden the news! Certainly he would have disturbed the wedding; but would it have been put off any the more? The bride's friends and advisers would have replied, "But that is no positive proof that he is alive; and, if he is alive, he has clearly abandoned her. Not a line for all these months."
This view of the matter appeared to him unanswerable, and reconciled him, in a great degree, to what seemed inevitable.
He uttered one deep sigh of regret, and proceeded now to read his letters; for he was not likely to have another opportunity for an hour or two at least, since he must be at the wedding breakfast.
His absence would afflict the bride.
The third letter he took out of his breast-pocket bore an American postmark. At the first word of it he uttered an ejaculation, and his eye darted to the signature.
Then he gave a roar of delight. It was signed "Henry Little," and the date only twelve days old.
His first thought was the poor lady who, at this moment, lay on a sofa in his house, a prey to doubts and fears he could now cure in a moment.
But no sooner had he cast his eyes over the contents, than his very flesh began to creep with dire misgivings and suspicions.
To these succeeded the gravest doubts as to the course he ought to pursue at Woodbine Villa.
He felt pretty sure that Grace Carden had been entrapped into marrying a villain, and his first impulse was to denounce the bridegroom before the assembled guests.
But his cooler judgment warned him against acting in hot blood, and suggested it would be better to try and tell her privately.
And then he asked himself what would be the consequence of telling her.
She was a lady of great spirit, fire, and nobility. She would never live with this husband of hers.
And then came the question, What would be her life?
She might be maid, wife, and widow all her days.
Horrible as it was, he began almost to fear her one miserable chance of happiness might lie in ignorance.