anks, if that compliment is intended for me. It seems
higher than my merits, but it shall be the aspiration of my life to live
up to it," said the colonel, with a very low bow.

"Why have you demanded this interview with me? Why have you come here to
torment me?" demanded the lady, wringing her hands.

"First of all, to show you, and to prove to you, the true relations in
which I stand to your daughter."

"And of what avail will that be to you? You cannot claim our daughter as
your wife without an open confession of having married the Widow Wright
during the lifetime of your first wife, and thereby exposing yourself to
prosecution for more than one crime, the least of which would send you to
State prison--for bigamy, for forgery, for robbery. And do you think your
California victim is of a temper and disposition to spare you, when she
finds out that she has been so criminally deceived--when she knows that
you are not her husband? No! She will prosecute you to the utmost extent
of the law. And, even if it were possible to suppose that she could
forgive your black villainy, forget her own deep wrongs, and forego
vengeance, do you suppose it possible that Abel Force would ever be
brought to recognize your claim to his daughter? Never, you may depend on
it! He will repudiate your claim as the most shameful insult to his
family. He will protect his daughter against you with his life. If
needful, he will seek a dissolution of this merely nominal ceremony of
marriage in the proper courts of law. Why, Abel Force would see his
daughter in her grave before he would see her sacrificed to a man publicly
disgraced as you have been!"

"Quite so. I perfectly understand that. The situation would be exceedingly
awkward in any light. So, my lady, I am not so mad as to come here to
claim immediate possession of my wife. I came, as I said, to prove to you
that I have a legal claim upon her; that I am her lawfully wedded husband;
that she is my lawful wife. All this seems tautological, vainly
repetitive; but, then, repetitions are really necessary to make an
impression on some people--on yourself, as a matter of detail."

"Be as brief as possible, if you please," said the lady, much relieved by
what he had just told her of his non-intention to put in any present claim
to the possession of Odalite.

"I will. I shall leave this part of the country in a few hours, and depart
for England within a few days. I really think it is the best cou