"That will do, Mr. Kyte. Gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the testimony of our witness, the only and all-sufficient witness for the defense; but we will recall one who appeared here as the most important witness for the prosecution. The Reverend Mr. Borden will please to take the stand once more," said Mr. Berners.
The rector of St. ---- came forward and took his place in the witness box.
"Mr. Borden, will you be so good as to look at these two gentlemen and tell me, upon your oath, which of them you married to Mrs. Mary Grey?" politely requested Mr. Berners.
The rector looked from Alden Lytton to Craven Kyte, and from Craven Kyte back to Alden Lytton. And his face paled and flushed as he exclaimed:
"May the Lord of heaven forgive me, for I have made an awful mistake! It was _that_ gentleman whom I married to Mrs. Grey;" and he pointed straight to Craven Kyte.
A murmur of great excitement passed through the court-room.
"A while ago you swore it was the other man," said Mr. Desmond, with an ugly sneer.
"So I did! May Heaven forgive me for the awful, though unconscious perjury; for so I thought, with all my judgment, until I saw this last man! And certainly they are perfect duplicates of each other. Any one, under the same circumstances, might have made the same mistake," meekly replied the minister.
And certainly every one who saw and compared the two men agreed with the last speaker.
"Will you be so good, reverend sir, as to explain by what test you now know these perfect duplicates, the one from the other, and are enabled to identify the particular one whom you married to Mrs. Grey on the fifteenth of the last September?"
"Certainly, sir. I can distinguish them by a certain indefinable difference which I can perceive while I see them together, but which I might fail to perceive if they were apart from each other. Also I can identify this last man, who calls himself Craven Kyte, by that small mark or scar that he bears on his temple near the corner of his left eye. I noticed it at the time I performed the marriage ceremony, but I thought it was a fresh scar. And I never remembered it at all when called upon to identify Mr. Alden Lytton, or indeed until I saw it again upon Mr. Craven Kyte."