The Illegal Marriage — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

248 THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE, — produced a corresponding calm; and in a fortnight no one would have supposed that an event of so great moment had occurred. The newspapers came out with long items—much to Cecy’s disgust—praising the conduct of Miss Morgan; and, so far as Stannard could see, there was not one which did not claim to have predicted Miss Morgan’s acquittal from the first. : A week after his return, Stannard received the Fort Valley paper, and opened it to see what the editor had tosay. Presently he roared with laughter when by himself, bringing Aunt Emmy, with Stan- nard’s body-servant Tom at her heels, to see what was the matter. “*Pon my word, that is too good,” he said to him- self, and again laughing loudly; “I must read that over.” “Our readers will remember that we stated at first that Miss Morgan claimed that her father had com- mitted suicide, although the coroner’s jury did not concur in that opinion. We had no idea that they considered Miss Morgan guilty, but that they hoped to bring to ight some facts about a young man who was persecuting her with attentions, that greatly annoyed both Miss Morgan and her father. We learn that he has since left the country. “Our readers will be pleased to hear that Miss Morgan, who is a young lady of great beauty, and high attainments, left the court-room without a stain upon her name, and that she had the full sympathy of all.” “That, that, that,” said Stannard, raving again, “did anybody ever before see a paragraph like that? That fellow has impudence enough to exhaust every ‘that’ in the language.” But this was the last of the affair. The common ways of the country people were renewed: farmers gathered their crops, or met to talk of the elections, and the name of “old Dan Morgan” was forgotten or never mentioned by those who were the most excited over his death. Winter came and passed, and a new spring was comicbooks com —