The Illegal Marriage — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

e , | ¢ is 126 ILLEGAL MAKRIAGE. suspicion from Cecy in this way would have been to throw it upon Alfred Guerry, who could not be cuilty of such a crime. He determined to see Guerry at once. Sending home for Doctor Pierce, Stannard mounted Cecy’s own saddle horse, and rode over to the Guerrys’. Alfred was not at home. At an early hour that morning he had started for Macon, leaving a note ‘to inform his family of his departure. As far away as the Guerrys lived, the news of Morgan’s murder had already reached them, and the white-haired old preacher listened intently to Stannard’s version of the affair. That Alfred had been home the night before, the old man did not doubt, and so answered when Stannard asked the question. He felt sure that his son had slept at home, and full of confidence, went to Alfred’s chamber to satisfy his own eyes. One glance into that room seemed to change the whole appearance of the old man, for, as pale as death, he sank down into a chair, and seemed lost in thought. There were evidences enough that Alfred had not slept in his bed that night. Riding homeward, Stannard tried hard to work out the problems that perplexed his mind. He could not permit Miss Morgan to lie under this sus- picion; yet, to relieve her, he must throw suspicion upon her lover. He could not talk to Cecy now; he must see Alfred Guerry at once. A few words to state the serious trouble that would follow the revelation which he might be forced to make, would certainly bring him to Echaconnee. Even as the thought was in his mind, Stannard saw a man whom he would swear to be Alfred “comicbooks:com — Be