The Illegal Marriage — page 209: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE, 201 CHAPTER XIX. ALFRED GUERRY WHISPERS IN THE EAR OF DR. TRIPPE. In relating a story which so many persons now living will remember, I have endeavored to confine myself to the leading facts—to give the main feat- ures only of the drama—leaving the by-play to be filled in by the imagination of the reader... An expert story-teller (which I do not profess to be), could easily carry the story of the well-known EKchaconnee tragedy through one or two large volumes; but I have no desire to do more than re- late the simple facts, presenting, here and there, an epitome of the conversations which were held by the leading characters, in order to give the reader a fair understanding of their feelings and motives. I pass over entirely the great excitement which the tragedy caused in the quiet Echaconnee settle- ment; the spiteful remarks of certain ladies upon Miss Morgan’s arrest—ladies who “never did think her so much better than other people”—I pass the county talk and gossip about it for many a day, with many other things that would bear relating, and I shall touch lightly upon the trial at Perry. But it made a great stir at the time, and drew out hundreds from the surrounding country who had never before seen the inside of the court-house. All of these things may still be learned from any old gossip in Crawford or Houston counties; to relate them here would be to spin out my story to an impracticable length. For four weeks the matter had been in every mouth, and on the morning of the trial the streets of Perry were filled with carriages, carts, and country wagons, bringing in people of both sexes and all conditions in life. Before speaking of the trial it is necessary, in order to present a connected story to the reader, to Eomicbooks (Ele)