Detective and mystery stories; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"I was married to-day in Grace Church. At the altar my bride--you
probably know her name, Miss Georgian Hazen--wore a natural look, and was
in all respects, so far as any one could see, a happy woman, satisfied
with her choice and pleased with the eclat and elegancies of the
occasion. Half-way down the aisle this all changed. I remember the
instant perfectly. Her hand was on my arm and I felt it suddenly stiffen.
I was not alarmed, but I gave her a quick look and saw that something had
happened. What, I could not at the moment determine. She didn't answer
when I spoke to her and seemed to be mainly concerned in getting out of
the church before her emotions overcame her. This she succeeded in doing
with my help; and, once in the vestibule, recovered herself so
completely, and met all my inquiries with such a gay shrug of the
shoulders, that I should have passed the matter over as a mere attack of
nerves, if I had not afterwards detected in her face, through all the
hurry and excitement of the ensuing reception, a strained expression not
at all natural to her. This was still more evident after the
congratulations of a certain guest, who, I am sure, whispered to her
before he passed on; and when the time came for her to go up-stairs she
was so pale and unlike herself that I became seriously alarmed and asked
if she felt well enough to start upon the journey we had meditated.
Instantly her manner changed. She turned upon me with a look I have been
trying ever since to explain to myself, and begged me not to take her out
of town to-night but to some quiet hotel where we might rest for a few
days before starting on our travels. She looked me squarely in the eye as
she made this request and, seeing in her nothing more than a feverish
anxiety lest I should make difficulties of some kind, I promised to do
what she asked and bade her run away and get herself ready to go and say
nothing to any one of our change of plan. She smiled and turned away
towards her own room, but presently came hurrying back to ask if I would
grant her one more favor. Would I be so good as not to speak to her or
expect her to speak to me till we got to the hotel; she was feeling very
nervous but was sure that a few minutes of complete rest would entirely
restore her; something had occurred (she acknowledged this) which she
wanted to think out; wouldn't I grant her this one opportunity of doing
so? It was a startling request, but she looked so lovely--pardon me, I
must explain my easy acquiescence--that I gave her the assurance she
wished and went about my own preparations, somewhat disconcerted but
still not at all prepared for what happened afterward. I had absolutely
no idea that she meant to leave me."
Mr. Ransom paused, greatly affected; but upon the detective asking him
how and when Mrs. Ransom had deserted him, he controlled himself
sufficiently to say:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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