Hosmer Angel

Hosmer Angel presents himself as a gentleman of respectable profession and modest fortune, a man devoted to Mary Sutherland and eager to marry her. He is attentive and affectionate during their courtship, arranging meetings and exacting vows of fidelity from her. Yet everything about him is carefully constructed: his speech is strained and unnatural, his appearance altered by disguise. He conducts a prolonged deception, meeting Mary Sutherland in private and extracting promises to bind her to him, all while taking elaborate precautions to avoid being seen alongside her stepfather. His sudden disappearance on the very morning of their wedding—stepping in and out of a four-wheeler—marks the culmination of a scheme designed to isolate her affections from all other suitors.