This discovery of course involved the Wooster Daltons. Mr. Dalton instituted court action immediately to have the first marriage legally set aside. This was done today by order of Judge Darius Martin who heard the case.

The five-day provision was waived by Probate Judge Wolford Hartley and the Dalton knot was tied again today in the sanctuary of the Forest Chapel Methodist Church by their pastor, the Rev. Arlen B. Alsop.

Fortunately Eddie had discussed the whole affair with his family, so, aside from a little embarrassing kidding no harm has been done.

However, as tradition goes, the Daltons will maintain their original anniversary which is June 5, 1937, and will truly rejoice in the knowledge that their friends understand this unfortunate situation.

It was official, and now everyone in Wooster would know about this unfortunate situation. This one would sit right at the top of everyone’s lists of scandals so far in 1953. Although Vivian could take a little comfort in the fact that the story wasn’t as much of an upset as the Gilbert Ogden bank robbery story had been, and the townspeople weren’t affected by it the way they’d been with the robbery.

Publicly, the people of Wooster had emphatically criticized and condemned “that sneaky” Gilbert Ogden for what he’d done, but privately there were some who wondered if they could’ve gotten away with something like that. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There had been a lot of sucking air through teeth, and exaggerated eyebrow-waggling, and “Whooo-wee, that’s a lot of money!” declarations. Their fantasies varied a little, but most imagined their debts wiped clean, their troubles disappearing in the blink of an eye, and life rising up to meet them at every turn, with all that money. New homes, new cars, maybe even a boat, although they’d have to take it up to Cleveland or Sandusky to get it out on the water. Hell, they could just pay somebody to build them a brand-new lake right there in Wooster! With that kind of money, the world could be your oyster, and you could afford to buy all the oysters you wanted at Buehler’s. That sneaky Gilbert Ogden had wanted the oyster, saw his opportunity, and seized it (along with Bill Parker’s wife), and showed everyone in Wooster that maybe being sneaky wasn’t the worst thing you could be. Nearly every one of the telephone operators at Bell had overheard at least one lamentation about Gilbert Ogden’s “luck,” and they’d all nodded along in secret agreement.

Nobody in Wooster was talking about Vivian Dalton’s luck.

“Unfortunate situation,” the article had called it. That’d been the understatement of the year, which Vivian had insisted upon with The Daily Record. Most unfortunate that Eddie had not discussed the “whole affair” with his family. Yessir. Most unfortunate that Vivian had instead heard about it while eavesdropping on Betty Miller’s telephone conversation six weeks ago. Most unfortunate, that nasty little tick of a rumor which had dug its pincers into Vivian and then burrowed its head in deeper as she clawed and scraped at it, trying to pry it loose.