"
"Well," said I, "I didn't. I was too busy thinking about and praising
her."
"That's the same thing," he said. "I'll stay with you."
I got up and bowed.
"Thank you, Your Excellency," I said.
Then we both smiled.
"It's queer," said Courtney, "how, even in the most embarrassing
difficulties, a woman's love makes a man's heart light."
I nodded. I was thinking of the drive to the Palace.
Courtney's laugh aroused me. "Come out of the brougham," he called.
"That is where I was," I admitted.
"The next thing," said he, "is to see that marriage certificate."
"If there be one," I questioned.
"There is one--of that you may be sure."
"She offered to show it to you, to-day," said I. "Call her bluff."
"I'm going to accept her offer, when I leave here. And, what's more, I
shall see the certificate," he said. "This plot has been too well laid
for the essentials to have been overlooked. I'll bet a twenty you were
in New York City on the twenty-first of last December."
"Yes," said I, "I was. So it's up to proving the certificate a forgery."
He shook his head. "I fear we shall find it a perfectly regular
certificate."
"You mean," said I, "that they have bribed some official to make a false
record?"
"Just that.
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