"Leonidas, let me put a possible case. Suppose that when Anglesea married the Californian widow he had an invalid wife living at the time in England. Then the marriage with the Californian would have been of no effect. Suppose, in the interim between the ceremony performed in the church at St. Sebastian and this performed at All Faith Church, the invalid wife had died--then the last marriage would be legal and binding."
"Oh, Aunt Elfrida. Why do you suppose such dreadful conditions?" exclaimed the youth.
"Because, my poor boy, I have reason to believe them to be the true conditions," sorrowfully replied the lady.
The youth sprang up and walked the floor in great excitement.
"What reasons have you for thinking as you do?" he at length demanded.
"But you do not know this to be the case? You only think so?" he questioned.
"No, I do not know it; because I cannot rely upon the truthfulness of my informant, nor on the genuineness of the evidence offered."
"But, anyhow, I am sure if that villain had any claim at all on Odalite, brute that he was, he would have pushed it to extremity!"
"No doubt he would if he had dared, but he dared not, Le! If he had claimed Odalite as his lawful wife, on the ground that his former marriage with Mrs. Wright was an illegal one, upon account of the fact of his having had a wife living at the time it was contracted, and dead since, be sure that the honest California woman, finding herself deceived, would have prosecuted him for bigamy, and our courts would have punished him with the utmost rigor of the law! So, though he might have a lawful claim on Odalite, he dared not press it! No, nor dared he even to remain in the country. You know that he has sailed for England."
"Yes, thank Heaven! But, oh, Aunt Elfrida, if there should be any foundation for your fears that Anglesea has any claim on Odalite, then Uncle Abel should see to it at once and have her freed from such a monster by course of law," vehemently exclaimed Le.
"And so he should, if there were any certainty about that claim; but there is none. Odalite may be free or she may not be. We cannot be sure until we know more of the man's antecedents. Le, you must be patient, and very prudent. Odalite's position is a very delicate one. You must not think of entering into any engagement with her at present, or doing anything, or saying anything, or writing anything that shall compromise her in the very slightest degree. I am very sure that you would not, Le."