DANNY'S OWN STORY BY DON MARQUIS TO MY ... - Pink Monkey

"'You THINK you are,' said Prentiss McMakin,
with a smile.
"In spite of myself my breath stopped. It was
as if a chilly hand had taken hold of my heart.
I mean, physically, I felt like that.
"'I AM married,' I repeated, simply.
"I suppose that McMakin had got the story of
our wedding from YOU." She stopped a minute.
The doctor's voice answered:
"I suppose so," like he was a very tired man.
"Anyhow," she went on, "he knew that we went
first to Clarksville. He said:
"'You think you are married, Lucy, but you
are not.'
"I wish you to understand that Prentiss McMakin
did it all very, very well. That is my excuse. He
acted well. There was something about him--I
scarcely know how to put it. It sounds odd, but
the truth is that Prentiss McMakin was always a
more convincing sort of a person when he had been
drinking a little than when he was sober. He
lacked warmth--he lacked temperament. I suppose
just the right amount put it into him. It put the
devil into him, too, I reckon.
"He told me that you and he, Tom, had been to
Clarksville, and had made investigations, and that
the wedding was a fraud. And he told it with a
wealth of convincing detail. In the midst of it he
broke off to ask to see my wedding certificate. As
he talked, he laughed at it, and tore it up, saying
that the thing was not worth the paper it was on,
and he threw the pieces of paper into the grate. I
listened, and I let him do it--not that the paper
itself mattered particularly. But the very fact that
I let him tear it showed me, myself, that I was
believing him.