CHAPTER XXX
AT THE HOTEL BOILEAU
It was early in December,--two months after the departure of Edna and herlittle party from New York,--and they were all comfortably domiciled inthe Hotel Boileau, in a quiet street, not far from the Boulevard desItaliens. This house, to which they came soon after their arrival inParis, might be considered to belong to the family order, but its gradewas much higher than that of the hotel in which they had lived in SanFrancisco. As in the former place, they had private apartments, a privatetable, and the service of their own colored men, in addition to that ofthe hotel servants. But their salon was large and beautifully furnished,their meals were cooked by a French chef, every one, from the lordlyporter to the quick-footed chambermaid, served them with a courteousinterest, and Mrs. Cliff said that although their life in the two hotelsseemed to be in the main the same sort of life, they were, in reality, asdifferent as an old, dingy mahogany bureau, just dragged from an attic,and that same piece of furniture when it had been rubbed down, oiled, andvarnished. And Ralph declared that, so far as he knew anything about it,there was nothing like the air of Paris to bring out the tones andcolorings and veinings of hotel life. But the greatest difference betweenthe former and the present condition of this little party lay in the factthat in San Francisco its principal member was Mrs. Philip Horn, while inParis it was Miss Edna Markham.
This change of name had been the result of nights of thought and hours ofconsultation. In San Francisco Edna felt herself to be Mrs. Horn as trulyas if they had been married at high noon in one of the city churches, butalthough she could see no reason to change her faith in the reality ofher conjugal status, she had begun to fear that Captain Horn might havedifferent views upon the subject. This feeling had been brought about bythe tone of his letters. If he should die, those letters might prove thatshe was then his widow, but it was plain that he did not wish to impressupon her mind that she was now his wife.
If she had remained in San Francisco, Edna would have retained thecaptain's name. There she was a stranger, and Captain Horn was wellknown. His agents knew her as Mrs. Horn, the people of the _MaryBartlett_ knew her as such, and she should not have thought of resigningit. But in Paris the case was very different. There she had friends, andexpected to make more, and in that city she was quite sure that CaptainHorn was very little known.
Edna's Parisian friends, were all Americans, and some of them people ofconsideration, one of her old schoolmates being the wife of a secretaryof the American legation. Could she appear before these friends as Mrs.Captain Philip Horn, feeling that not only was she utterly unable toproduce Captain Horn, but that she might never be able to do so? Shouldthe captain not return, and should she have proofs of his death, orsufficient reason to believe it, she might then do as she pleased aboutclaiming her place as his widow. But should he return, he should not findthat she had trammelled and impeded his plans and purposes by announcingherself as his wife. She did not expect ever to live in San Franciscoagain, and in no other place need she be known as Mrs. Horn.
As to the business objects of her exceptional marriage, they were, in alarge degree, already attained. The money Captain Horn had remitted toher in San Francisco was a sum so large as to astound her, and when shereached Paris she lost no time in depositing her funds under her maidenname. For the sake of security, some of the money was sent to a Londonbanker, and in Paris she did not deposit with the banking house whichCaptain Horn had mentioned. But directions were left with that house thatif a letter ever came to Mrs. Philip Horn, it was to be sent to her incare of Mrs. Cliff, and, to facilitate the reception of such a letter,Mrs. Cliff made Wraxton, Fuguet & Co. her bankers, and all her letterswere addressed to them. But at Edna's bankers she was known as MissMarkham, and her only Parisian connection with the name of Horn wasthrough Mrs. Cliff.
The amount of money now possessed by Edna was, indeed, a very fairfortune for her, without regarding it, as Captain Horn had requested, asa remittance to be used as a year's income. In his letters accompanyinghis remittances the captain had always spoken of them as her share of thegold brought away, and in this respect he treated her exactly as hetreated Mrs. Cliff, and in only one respect had she any reason to inferthat the money was in any manner a contribution from himself. In makingher divisions according to his directions, her portion was so muchgreater than that of the others, Edna imagined Captain Horn sent her hisshare as well as her own. But of this she did not feel certain, andshould he succeed in securing the rest of the gold in the mound, she didnot know what division he would make. Consequently, this little thread ofa tie between herself and the captain, woven merely of some hypotheticalarithmetic, was but a cobweb of a thread. The resumption of her maidenname had been stoutly combated by both Mrs. Cliff and Ralph. The firstfirmly insisted upon the validity of the marriage, so long as the captaindid not appear, but she did not cease to insist that the moment he didappear, there should be another ceremony.
"But," said Edna, "you know that Cheditafa's ceremony was performedsimply for the purpose of securing to me, in case of his loss on thatboat trip, a right to claim the benefit of his discovery. If he shouldcome back, he can give me all the benefit I have a right to claim fromthat discovery, just as he gives you your share, without the leastnecessity of a civilized marriage. Now, would you advise me to take astep which would seem to force upon him the necessity for such amarriage?"
"No," said Mrs. Cliff. "But all your reasoning is on a wrong basis. Ihaven't the least doubt in the world---I don't see how any one can have adoubt--that the captain intends to come back and claim you as his wife;and if anything more be necessary to make you such, as I consider therewould be, he would be as ready as anybody to do it. And, Edna, if youcould see yourself, not merely as you look in the glass, but as he wouldsee you, you would know that he would be as ready as any of us would wishhim to be. And how will he feel, do you suppose, when he finds that yourenounce him and are going about under your maiden name?"
In her heart Edna answered that she hoped he might feel very much as shehad felt when he did not come to see her in San Francisco, but to Mrs.Cliff she said she had no doubt that he would fully appreciate herreasons for assuming her old name.
Ralph's remarks were briefer, and more to the point.
"He married you," he said, "the best way he could under thecircumstances, and wrote to you as his wife, and in San Francisco youtook his name. Now, if he comes back and says you are not his wife, I'llkill him."
"If I were you, Ralph," said his sister, "I wouldn't do that. In fact, Imay say I would disapprove of any such proceeding."
"Oh, you can laugh," said he, "but it makes no difference to me. I shalltake the matter into my own hands if he repudiates that contract."
"But suppose I give him no chance to repudiate it?" said Edna. "Supposehe finds me Miss Edna Markham, and finds, also, that I wish to continueto be that lady? If what has been done has any force at all, it caneasily be set aside by law."
Ralph rose and walked up and down the floor, his hands thrust deep intohis pockets.
"That's just like a woman," he said. "They are always popping up new anddifferent views of things, and that is a view I hadn't thought of. Isthat what you intend to do?"
"No," said Edna, "I do not intend to do anything. All I wish is to holdmyself in such a position that I can act when the time comes to act."
Ralph took the whole matter to bed with him in order to think over it. Hedid a great deal more sleeping than thinking, but in the morning he toldEdna he believed she was right.
"But one thing is certain," he said: "even if that heathen marriageshould not be considered legal, it was a solemn ceremony of engagement,and nobody can deny that. It was something like a caveat which people getbefore a regular patent is issued for an invention, and if you want himto do it, he should stand up and do it; but if you don't, that's yourbusiness. But let me give you a piece of advice: wherever you go andwhatever you do, until this matter is settled, be sure to carry aroundthat two-legged
marriage certificate called Cheditafa. He can speak agood deal of English now, if there should be any dispute."
"Dispute!" cried Edna, indignantly. "What are you thinking of? Do yousuppose I would insist or dispute in such a matter? I thought you knew mebetter than that."
Ralph sighed. "If you could understand how dreadfully hard it is to knowyou," he said, "you wouldn't be so severe on a poor fellow if he happenedto make a mistake now and then."
When Mrs. Cliff found that Edna had determined upon her course, sheceased her opposition, and tried, good woman as she was, to take assatisfactory a view of the matter as she could find reason for.
"It would be a little rough," she said, "if your friends were to meet youas Mrs. Horn, and you would be obliged to answer questions. I have hadexperience in that sort of thing. And looking at it in that light, Idon't know but what you are right, Edna, in defending yourself againstquestions until you are justified in answering them. To have to admitthat you are not Mrs. Horn after you had said you were, would bedreadful, of course. But the other would be all plain sailing. You wouldgo and be married properly, and that would be the end of it. And even ifyou were obliged to assert your claims as his widow, there would be noobjection to saying that there had been reasons for not announcing themarriage. But there is another thing. How are you going to explain yourprosperous condition to your friends? When I was in Plainton, I thoughtof you as so much better off than myself in this respect, for over herethere would be no one to pry into your affairs. I did not know you hadfriends in Paris."
"All that need not trouble me in the least," said Edna. "When I went toschool with Edith Southall, who is now Mrs. Sylvester, my father was in avery good business, and we lived handsomely. It was not until I wasnearly grown up that he failed and died, and then Ralph and I went toCincinnati, and my life of hard work began. So you see there is no reasonwhy my friends in Paris should ask any questions, or I should makeexplanations."
"I wish it were that way in Plainton," said Mrs. Cliff, with a sigh. "Iwould go back there the moment another ship started from France."
So it was Miss Edna Markham of New York who took apartments at the HotelBoileau, and it was she who called upon the wife of the Americansecretary of legation.