The Illegal Marriage — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE 65 ness that she was my betrothed, and that I had purposely released her from school in order to marry her. “As soon as possible I went to see Adela, finding her at a cheap hotel in the “outskirts of the city. She confirmed her brother’s story, and said that I had ruined her forever; for she had been expelled from the school after the exposure that I had caused. With tears and prayers she knelt at my feet, pray- ing that I would not let her be ruined and disgraced. “Trippe! you will think me a fool for what I did, but think how young !1 was at the time. I really believed that I had been the cause of all this, and my heart was deeply touched by Adela’s distress. “But one thing troubled me at the time. I knew that Adela’s appearance would be acceptable to my parents, and I thought her an innocent girl. But, Trippe, I thought even then of little Cecy Morgan, a mere baby. “T married Adela at once. My friend, this subject becomes painful to me—excuse me for a moment.” Two or three times Stannard paced up and down the room, the doctor sitting in silence. Suppressing his emotion with a strong, manly effort, Stannard continued: “Let me pass lightly over the rest of this dreadful story. The wedding was strictly private, according to Adela’s wish, no witnesses being present but her brother, my friend! Heavens, Trippe, how could men make so great a mockery of the sacred name of friendship as did this brother and his friend, whose expenses I was paying? “One week passed, and we were making prepara- tions to leave Geneva, when I one day came upon Adela unawares in the garden of the house where Eomicbooks (Ele)