In now returning to the subject, I must request you to take your mind back to what has passed since. My object here is to bring all further negotiation between us to an end. Mr. Bintrey represents me, and will tell you what I propose.
Obenreizer. Marguerite, I am not quite sure, from Mr. Vendale’s tone, whether I am meeting an enemy or a friend. May I ask whether your former feeling of regard for me has undergone any change?
Marguerite. My former feeling of regard——
Vendale. (stopping her). Wait, Marguerite.
Obenreizer. Sir!
Bintrey. Mr. Obenreizer, when you are ready, I am.
Obenreizer. (observing VENDALE and MARGUERITE). No. He has not seen her. He has had no time to tell her yet.
Bintrey. (produces a sheet of paper, and places it before OBENREIZER). All we ask of you is your signature to that document. You will find, if you read it, that it relates to your authority over your niece, and that it explains itself.
Obenreizer. (handing the paper back unread). Mr. Bintrey, your professional enthusiasm is misleading you. No document of any sort is required in this matter. Mr. Vendale and I understand each other. On that former occasion to which Mr. Vendale has referred (to VENDALE), it was agreed between us that he was to marry my ward when he had doubled his income. Has he doubled it?
Vendale. No.
Obenreizer. Then there can be no question of this marriage between us. Mr. Bintrey, you may put your sheet of paper in your pocket again.
Bintrey. (aside). My sheet of paper will get the better of you yet!
Vendale. Mr. Obenreizer, I am here, if you force me, to insist on the marriage.
Obenreizer. “Insist” is an ugly word, Mr. Vendale; I advise you to withdraw it. (To MARGUERITE.) I leave this place to-morrow, and you, Marguerite, leave it under my care.
Vendale. No!
Obenreizer. No? (Controlling himself.) Marguerite! you have not forgotten what I said to you the last time we spoke of your marriage?
Marguerite. I have not forgotten it.
Obenreizer. “If I tell you to wait, whatever Mr. Vendale may say, you will wait my time.”
Marguerite. He had not been in peril of his life then, and I had not shared that peril with him. Now——
Obenreizer. Now?
Vendale. She refuses.
Obenreizer. She breaks her promise?
Vendale. A promise which was extorted from her.
Obenreizer. She sets my lawful authority at defiance——
Bintrey. (interposing). Mr. Obenreizer——
Obenreizer. There can be but one motive for such conduct.
Marguerite. There is but one motive. I love him.
Obenreizer. You love him? Ah! Marguerite, you said that once before. It was needless to sting me a second time by repeating it. All further restraint on my part is at an end. Do you know the man whom you love? That man is an impostor. (Takes the Vendale papers from his pocket.)
Vendale. (starting up). What do you mean?
Obenreizer. Yes, Marguerite! An impostor, in the disguise of a gentleman.
Vendale. What?
Obenreizer. I will not allow my ward to throw herself away on such a man as you! Until she comes of age she is under my care, and she must obey my will. Mr. Bintrey, you are fond of documents. There are the documents to prove what I say. Look at them!
(Hands him the papers.)
Bintrey. (looking at them, and starting to his feet). What! Impossible!
Obenreizer. Three years since, an English gentleman perished on this mountain; the papers taken from his body were preserved here.
Vendale. How do you come by those papers?
Bintrey. (looking the papers over). Quite needless to inquire. Go on.
Obenreizer. The oldest of those papers is dated five-and-twenty years since. It is written by an Englishwoman settled in Switzerland. She is a childless widow. She adopts a child from the Foundling in England, and she brings that child out to Switzerland.
Marguerite. Is George concerned in this?
Obenreizer. Shortly after, the widow marries again. Her husband, interested in the adopted child, desires to give the boy the position of his son. The boy is never to be humiliated by knowing his real origin. He is to believe himself the child of the husband and wife who have adopted him. (To BINTREY.) Am I right, Mr. Bintrey?
Bintrey. Entirely.
Marguerite. (to BINTREY). What has George to fear in all this?
Obenreizer. (to BINTREY). Are you composed enough to answer another professional question? What is legally necessary to complete this case?
Bintrey. Evidence to prove whether the husband and wife are dead or living.
Obenreizer. (pushing over more papers). There is the evidence that they are both dead. What is necessary next?
Bintrey. The names and addresses of witnesses who can speak to the question of identity.
Obenreizer. There they are.
Bintrey. Complete. (To VENDALE.) George, prepare yourself for a great shock.
Vendale. The name!—the name of the widow who brought the child to Switzerland.
Obenreizer. Mrs. Miller!
Vendale. (to BINTREY). The name we found on the Foundling books when you and I looked at the register!
Bintrey. Quite right! We have found the missing man!
Marguerite. Oh! George! George! what is it?
Vendale. Nothing, love, that I have not suspected already! (To OBENREIZER.) You are the lost Walter Wilding. You are the missing man.
Obenreizer. (with an ironical bow). Pardon me! Mr. Vendale, I have not that honour. YOU are the missing man. (All rise.)
Vendale. Is he mad?
Bintrey. It’s true!
Obenreizer. The man you love, Marguerite, has no station in life, no name of his own.
Vendale. Marguerite!
Obenreizer. He is a bastard, brought up by public charity.
Marguerite. (throwing herself into VENDALE’S arms). George! I never loved you as I love you now!
Bintrey. He is one thing besides, Mr. Obenreizer. He is a man whose income you have just doubled. Mr. Vendale inherits the whole of the late Mr. Wilding’s fortune, thanks entirely to your exertions.
Obenreizer. What!!
Bintrey. Respect your engagement. Remember your promise! His income is doubled, and he claims his wife! Will you sign?
Obenreizer. Never! Marguerite is here, in my power. I am still her guardian, and——(advances to take her).
Marguerite. George!
Vendale. (placing himself between her and OBENREIZER.) Don’t fear, love! Wait till the first bitterness of his defeat has passed away.
Bintrey.