"To be sure I will," cried out our hero, "and that with the utmost
willingness in the world."

During all this while the elegant company had sat as with suspended
animation, overwhelmed with wonder at the singular address of the
intruder. Even the servants stood still with the dishes in their hands
the better to hear the outcome of the affair. The bride, overwhelmed by
a sudden and inexplicable anxiety, felt the color quit her face, and
reaching out, seized her lover's hand, who took hers very readily,
holding it tight within his grasp. As for Colonel and Madam Belford,
not knowing what this remarkable address portended, they sat as though
turned to stone, the one gone as white as ashes, and the other as red
in the face as a cherry. Our young gentleman, however, maintained the
utmost coolness and composure of demeanor. Pointing his finger towards
the intruder, he exclaimed: "In Captain Obadiah Belford, ladies and
gentlemen, you behold the most unmitigated villain that ever I met in
all of my life. With an incredible spite and vindictiveness he not only
pursued my honored father-in-law, Colonel Belford, but has sought to
wreak an unwarranted revenge upon the innocent and virtuous young lady
whom I have now the honor to call my wife. But how has he overreached
himself in his machinations! How has he entangled his feet in the net
which he himself has spread! I will tell you my history, as he bids me
to do, and you may then judge for yourselves!"

At this unexpected address Captain Obadiah's face fell from its
expression of malicious triumph, growing longer and longer, until at
last it was overclouded with so much doubt and anxiety that, had he
been threatened by the loss of a thousand pounds, he could not have
assumed a greater appearance of mortification and dejection. Meantime,
regarding him with a mischievous smile, our young gentleman began the
history of all those adventures that had befallen him from the time he
embarked upon the memorable expedition with his two companions in
dissipation from York Stairs. As his account proceeded Captain
Obadiah's face altered by degrees from its natural brown to a sickly
yellow, and then to so leaden a hue that it could not have assumed a
more ghastly appearance were he about to swoon dead away. Great beads
of sweat gathered upon his forehead and trickled down his cheeks. At
last he could endure no more, but with a great and strident voice, such
as might burst forth from a devil