“Now,” said the doctor, “we’ll take up your story. You have, as I understand, two wives, one of whom bathes, and the other owns a bicycle.” Mr. Dick sat up and protested strongly. He appealed to Mr. Sanders to clear him of the charge of bigamy. “All right,” said Dr. O’Grady; “I’ll accept the statement that you’ve only one. Was she, or was she not, bathing with you when the Emperor came on you? Be careful how you answer.” “Certainly not. She’s--I trust she’s miles away, and safe.” “Then why did you express anxiety about the way the Emperor was likely to treat her?” “I didn’t.” “You did. You kept saying, ‘My poor wife.’ What did you mean by that, if you didn’t mean that the Emperor had captured her?” “I meant that she’d be anxious about me.” “She can’t be as fond of you as all that,” said the doctor. “Nobody could.” “She’s very fond of me. We’re only quite lately married.” “Have you a wife too?” said the doctor to Mr. Sanders. “Yes. I have a wife and an aunt. They’re both with me in Ireland.” “Do you suppose that your wife is as fond of you as Mrs. Dick is of her husband?” “I don’t know. How could I know that?” “The reason I ask the question,” said Dr. O’Grady, “is this. There’s a girl I’m engaged to be married to, a Miss Adeline Maud Blow, who is probably scouring the country in pursuit of me this minute. Patsy Devlin has a wife who may be out looking for him.” “The minute she’d find out I was gone,” said Patsy, “she’d be up at the barrack telling the police, the way she’d have me brought back to her.” “And now,” said the doctor, “it turns out that Mr. Dick has a wife, or perhaps two, of an unusually affectionate kind. And you have a wife and an aunt who have some regard for you. That makes five women altogether, all of them more or less energetic, and all of them bent on finding us. The question is, how long will it be before they think of coming to Rosivera?” “Not long,” said Mr. Sanders, “not long, I hope.” “For the sake of my poor wife,” said Mr. Dick, who had covered himself with the bed-clothes again, “I trust it will not be long.” “Be damn,” said Patsy Devlin, “but to listen to the way you’re talking, a man would think nobody in the world but yourself ever had a wife. I have one myself, as the doctor was saying this minute, and I wouldn’t wonder but she might be a better one than yours. But you don’t hear me lamenting over her every time I open my mouth.” “Tell me this,” said the doctor: “did you ever escape from your wife before?” “Escape from her!” “I mean, did you ever temporarily desert her, either through being taken prisoner or otherwise?” “Never,” said Mr. Dick. “We’ve only been a year married, and we’ve never been parted, even for a single day.”