"Poor girl!" and the convict spoke sorrowfully. "I did not think she
would take it so hard, but the worst is not yet told, and I must hasten.
I ingratiated myself at once into John Richards' good graces and when I
knew it would answer, I suggested a mock marriage. First, however, I
would know something definite of his family as they were then, and so,
as a Mr. Morris, who wished to purchase a country seat, I went to
Snowdon, and after some inquiries in the village, forced my way to
Terrace Hill. The lady listening to me was the only one I saw, and I
felt sure she at least would be kind to Adah. On my return to New York,
I urged the marriage more pertinaciously than at first, saying, by way
of excusing myself, that as I was only Adah's guardian, I could not, of
course, feel toward her as a near relative would feel--that as I had
already expended large sums of money on her, I was getting tired of it,
and would be glad to be released, hinting, by way of smoothing the
fiendish proposition, my belief that, from constant association, he
would come to love her so much that at last he would really and truly
make her his wife. He did hesitate--he did seem shocked, and if I
remember rightly, called me a brute, an unnatural guardian, and all
that; but little by little I gained ground, until at last he consented,
and I hurried the matter at once, lest he should repent.
"I had an acquaintance, I said, who lived a few miles from the city--a
man who, for money, would do anything, and who, as a feigned justice of
the peace, would go through with the ceremony, and ever after keep his
own counsel. I wonder the doctor did not make some inquiries concerning
this so-called justice, but I think I am right in saying that he is not
remarkably clear-headed, and this weakness saved me much trouble, and
after a long time I arranged the matter with my friend, who was a lawful
justice, staying with his brother, at that time absent in Europe. This
being done, I decided upon Hugh Worthington for a witness, as being the
person, of all the world, who should be present at Adah's bridal. He had
recently come to New York. I had accidentally made his acquaintance,
acquiring so strong an influence over him that I could almost mold him
to my will. I did not tell him what I wanted until I had tempted him
with drugged wine, and he did not realize what he was doing. He knew
enough, however, to sign his name and to salute the bride, who really
was a bride, as lawful a one as any who ever turned from the altar where
she had registered her vows."