lishing the legality of her marriage, with a view to claiming her
rights as a lawful wife.

He was very much elated over the discovery, and at once repaired to the
county town, to seek out the magistrate and learn what he could from him.

That gentleman confirmed what he had already learned. He said that several
weeks previous a young woman had come there to obtain a copy of the record
of a certain marriage, and that afterward a Chinaman and an elderly woman
had signed a paper in his presence, testifying to having been witnesses of
the ceremony.

Sir William reasoned that, since Virgie was seeking all these proofs, she
would doubtless apply to the clergyman who had married them; so to
Virginia City he straightway hastened, to seek the Rev. Dr. Thornton.

He found him readily enough. The clergyman appeared to be in feeble
health, and received him with coldness and evident displeasure.

"I suppose you are somewhat at a loss how to account for my visit, Dr.
Thornton," he remarked, in his genial way, and ignoring the frigidness of
his host's greeting; "but I have come to make some important inquiries of
you."

The reverend gentleman simply bowed, and then waited for his guest to
proceed.

"You will be surprised that I have lost my wife and am searching for her,"
the baronet continued, thinking it best to come to the point at once.

"Which one?" demanded the divine, with an accent of scorn in his usually
mild tones.

"Sir!"

"For which wife are you searching?"

"I have but one wife--the lady to whom you married me only a little more
than a year ago!" Sir William replied in a voice of thunder, his handsome
face flaming with righteous anger, though his heart bounded with new hope
at the question.

"I beg your pardon, sir," the clergyman replied, seeing at once that there
was some mystery, and there must have been some fearful mistake to cause
the separation of these two young people in whom he had been so deeply
interested.

"You will understand my untimely sarcasm, perhaps," he went on, "when I
tell you that I have been led to believe that you had done that beautiful
woman the greatest possible wrong."

He then proceeded to explain all that he knew of the matter.

Mrs. Heath, he said, had come to him, about a month previous, to secure a
written statement from him to the effect that he had performed the
marriage ceremony in a legal and authorized manner between herself and Sir
William Heath, of Heathdale, Ha