ANN slept calmly and sweetly that night, for the one cherished idea of her innocent girlhood was about to be consummated, and she smiled in her sleep and thought she saw her mother.

JEFFRY MAULBOY kept his word.  He was there at noon of the next day.  And the minister that was to marry them, and the lawyer that was to divorce them, were there also.

At one o’clock they were man and wife, sworn to love, honor, and obey each other till death did them part.  At a quarter of two o’clock they were man and woman, sworn to love, honor, and obey anybody they wanted to, for a divorce did them part.  And they went their separate ways.

CHAPTER SEVENTH.

WHERE IS ANN?

BELINDA returned from the Half-Way House, firmly determined to find out all about that affair of ANN’S.  Any woman would naturally feel curious about it, and BELINDA really cannot be blamed for showing a little feeling.  “To think.” said she, “after all my bragging that I’d be married first, and the times I’ve twitted her of being too homely to get a beau, that she should step out and get married right under my very nose, and I not know anything about it, or even who she’s married.  Oh, it’s too much.  But I’ll find out, if I die for it, and if there is anything about it that ain’t straight, won’t I crow over her?”

The Hon. MICHAEL was also very anxious to find out about it.  With the affectionate ardor of a grass widower of fifty-five, in a State where divorces sprout like mushrooms, he was loath to believe that ANN was utterly lost to him.  No, he would find her, he would follow her if necessary to the world’s end, living only in this hope, and when at last the goal was reached, and her adored form greeted his vision, he would pour out his wealth of love, bending his ear to catch the sweet response, and then, and only then, would everything be lovely.

And so it comes that he and BELINDA, each with a different motive, take counsel together in reference to the same end.

BELINDA’S first step was to send ARCHIBALD to the Half-Way House, for a full description of the man that called there for ANN.

“Be smart for once in your life,” said she, “and find out something.”

Then she and the Hon. MICHAEL started off to find out what direction ANN took after leaving the Half-Way House.  They interviewed every carriage-driver, depot-master, and hotel-keeper for miles around, but without the slightest success.  They finally came across a farmer, however, who said be drove a woman to the station below.  To their eager inquiries as to her appearance, he could say nothing further, than he thought she wore a dress, and was quite sure, though not certain, that she had on either a shawl, or some other outside garment.  He remembered her distinctly, because the half-dollar she gave him turned out to be counterfeit, and he got rid of it by giving it to a blind beggar; after which, he said, he sneaked round the corner, and laughed till he was red in the face, to think how slick that beggar was fooled.