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1"Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies,
2where Pa was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; but then one day father struck a rich pocket
3and made a pile, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to nothing. The richer Pa grew the poorer
4was Frank; so at last Pa wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took me away to 'Frisco. Frank
5wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so he followed me there, and he saw me without Pa knowing anything about it. It
6would only have made him mad to know, so we just fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and make his
7pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had as much as Pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of
8time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said
9he, 'and then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over,
10and he had fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, that we just did it right there; and then
11Frank went off to seek his fortune, and I went back to Pa. "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and
12then he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story
13about how a miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted
14dead away, and I was very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took me to half the doctors in 'Frisco.
15Not a word of news came for a year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really dead. Then Lord St. Simon
16came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, and a marriage was arranged, and Pa was very pleased, but I felt all the time
17that no man on this earth would ever take the place in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "Still, if I had
18married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our actions. I
19went to the altar with him with the intention to make him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may imagine
20what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the
21first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked again there he was still, with a kind of question in
22his eyes, as if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I didn't drop. I know that everything was
23turning round, and the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my ear. I didn't know what to do.
24Should I stop the service and make a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to know what I was
25thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, and
26I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he
27slipped the note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a line asking me to join him when he made the
28sign to me to do so. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now to him, and I determined to do
29just whatever he might direct. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, and had always been his
30friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to have spoken
31to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to run
32away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other
33side of the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed
34him. Some woman came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if
35he had a little secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away from her and soon overtook Frank. We
36got into a cab together, and away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and that was my true wedding
37after all those years of waiting. Frank had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to 'Frisco, found
38that I had given him up for dead and had gone to England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the very
39morning of my second wedding." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name and the church but not
40where the lady lived." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all for openness, but I was so ashamed
41of it all that I felt as if I should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just sending a line to Pa,
42perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting round that
43breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of them,
44so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we
45should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though
46how he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was
47right, and that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of
48talking to Lord St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at once. Now, Robert, you have heard it
49all, and I am very sorry if I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very meanly of me." Lord St. Simon
50had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this long
51narrative. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most intimate personal affairs in this public
52manner." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any
53pleasure." He put out his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that
54you would have joined us in a friendly supper." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Lordship.
55"I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over them. I
56think that with your permission I will now wish you all a very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and
57stalked out of the room. "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is
58always a joy to meet an American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the folly of a monarch and the
59blundering of a minister in far-gone years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens of the same
60world-wide country under a flag which shall be a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes."
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