CHAPTER XIX
MARRIAGE
In that atmosphere of perfect bliss G.o.dfrey"s cure was quick. For bliss it was, save only that there was another bliss beyond to be attained.
Remember that this man, now approaching middle life, had never drunk of the cup of what is known as love upon the earth.
Some might answer that such is the universal experience; that true, complete love has no existence, except it be that love of G.o.d to which a few at last attain, since in what we know as G.o.d completeness and absolute unity can be found alone. Other loves all have their flaws, with one exception perhaps, that of the love of the dead which fondly we imagine to be unchangeable. For the rest pa.s.sion, however exalted, pa.s.ses or at least becomes dull with years; the most cherished children grow up, and in so doing, by the law of Nature, grow away; friends are estranged and lost in their own lives.
Upon the earth there is no perfect love; it must be sought elsewhere, since having the changeful shadows, we know there is a sky wherein shines the sun that casts them.
G.o.dfrey, as it chanced, omitting Isobel, had walked little even in these sweet shadows. There were but three others for whom he had felt devotion in all his days, Mrs. Parsons, his tutor, Monsieur Boiset, and his friend, Arthur Thorburn, who was gone. Therefore to him Isobel was everything. As a child he had adored her; as a woman she was his desire, his faith and his worship.
If this were so with him, still more was it the case with Isobel, who in truth cared for no other human being. Something in her nature prevented her from contracting violent female friendships, and to all men, except a few of ability, each of them old enough to be her father, she was totally indifferent; indeed most of them repelled her. On G.o.dfrey, and G.o.dfrey alone, from the first moment she saw him as a child she had poured all the deep treasure of her heart. He was at once her divinity and her other self, the segment that completed her life"s circle, without which it was nothing but a useless, broken ring.
So much did this seem to her to be so, that notwithstanding her lack of faith in matters beyond proof and knowledge, she never conceived of this pa.s.sion of hers as having had a beginning, or of being capable of an end. This contradictory woman would argue against the possibility of any future existence, yet she was quite certain that her love for G.o.dfrey _had_ a future existence, and indeed one that was endless. When at length he put it to her that her att.i.tude was most illogical, since that which was dead and dissolved could not exist in any place or shape, she thought for a while and replied quietly:
"Then I must be wrong."
"Wrong in what?" asked G.o.dfrey.
"In supposing that we do not live after death. The continuance of our love I _know_ to be beyond any doubt, and if it involves our continuance as individual ent.i.ties--well, then we continue, that is all."
"We might continue as a single ent.i.ty," he suggested.
"Perhaps," she answered, "and if so this would be better still, for it must be impossible to lose one another while that remained alive, comprising both."
Thus, and in these few words, although she never became altogether orthodox, or took quite the same view of such mysteries as did G.o.dfrey, Isobel made her great recantation, for which probably there would never have been any need had she been born in different surroundings and found some other spiritual guide in youth than Mr. Knight. As the cruelties and the narrow bitterness of the world had bred unfaith in her, so did supreme love breed faith, if of an unusual sort, since she learned that without the faith her love must die, and the love she knew to be immortal. Therefore the existence of that living love presupposed all the rest, and convinced her, which in one of her obstinate nature nothing else could possibly have done, no, not if she had seen a miracle. Also this love of hers was so profound and beautiful that she felt its true origin and ultimate home must be elsewhere than on the earth.
That was why she consented to be married in church, somewhat to G.o.dfrey"s surprise.
In due course, having practically recovered his health, G.o.dfrey appeared before a Board in London which pa.s.sed him as fit for service, but gave him a month"s leave. With this doc.u.ment he returned to Hawk"s Hall, and there showed it to Isobel.
"And when the month is up?" she asked, looking at him.
"Then I suppose I shall have to join my regiment, unless they send me somewhere else."
"A month is a very short time," she went on, still looking at him and turning a little pale.
"Yes, dear, but lots can happen in it, as we found out in France. For instance," he added, with a little hesitation, "we can get married, that is, if you wish."
"You know very well, G.o.dfrey, that I have wished it for quite ten years."
"And you know very well, Isobel, that I have wished it--well, ever since I understood what marriage was. How about to-morrow?" he exclaimed, after a pause.
She laughed, and shook her head.
"I believe, G.o.dfrey, that some sort of license is necessary, and it is past post time. Also it would look scarcely decent; all these people would laugh at us. Also, as there is a good deal of property concerned, I must make some arrangements."
"What arrangements?" he asked.
She laughed again. "That is my affair; you know I am a great supporter of Woman"s Rights."
"Oh! I see," he replied vaguely, "to keep it all free from the husband"s control, &c."
"Yes, G.o.dfrey, that"s it. What a business head you have. You should join the shipping firm after the war."
Then they settled to be married on that day week, after which Isobel suggested that he should take up his abode at the Abbey House, where the clergyman, a bachelor, would be very glad to have him as a guest.
When G.o.dfrey inquired why, she replied blandly because his room was wanted for another patient, he being now cured, and that therefore he had no right to stop there.
"Oh! I see. How selfish of me," said G.o.dfrey, and went off to arrange matters with the clergyman, a friendly and accommodating young man, with the result that on this night once more he slept in the room he had occupied as a boy. For her part Isobel telephoned, first to her dressmaker, and secondly to the lawyer who was winding up her father"s estate, requesting these important persons to come to see her on the morrow.
They came quickly, since Isobel was too valuable a client to be neglected, arriving by the same train, with the result that the lawyer was kept waiting an hour and a half by the dressmaker, a fact which he remembered in his bill. When at last his turn came, Isobel did not detain him long.
"I am going to be married," she said, "on the twenty-fourth to Major G.o.dfrey Knight of the Indian Cavalry. Will you kindly prepare two doc.u.ments, the first to be signed before my marriage, and the second, a will, immediately after it, since otherwise it would be invalidated by that change in my condition."
The lawyer stared at her, since so much legal knowledge was not common among his lady clients, and asked for instructions as to what the doc.u.ments were to set out.
"They will be very simple," said Isobel. "The first, a marriage settlement, will settle half my income free of my control upon my future husband during our joint lives. The second, that is the will, will leave to him all my property, real and personal."
"I must point out to you, Miss Blake," said the astonished lawyer, "that these provisions are very unusual. Does Major Knight bring large sums into settlement?"
"I don"t think so," she answered. "His means are quite moderate, and if they were not, it would never occur to him to do anything of the sort, as he understands nothing about money. Also circ.u.mstanced as I am, it does not matter in the least."
"Your late father would have taken a different view," sniffed the lawyer.
"Possibly," replied Isobel, "for our views varied upon most points.
While he was alive I gave way to his, to my great loss and sorrow. Now that he is dead I follow my own."
"Well, that is definite, Miss Blake, and of course your wishes must be obeyed. But as regards this will, do not think me indelicate for mentioning it, but there might be children."
"I don"t think you at all indelicate. Why should I at over thirty years of age? I have considered the point. If we are blessed with any children, and I should predecease him, my future husband will make such arrangements for their welfare as he considers wise and just. I have every confidence in his judgment, and if he should happen to die intestate, which I think very probable, they would inherit equally.
There is enough for any number of them."
"Unless he loses or spends it," groaned the lawyer.
"He is much more likely to save it from some mistaken sense of duty, and to live entirely on what he has of his own," remarked Isobel. "If so, it cannot be helped, and no doubt the poor will benefit. Now if you thoroughly understand what I wish done, I think that is all. I have to see the dressmaker again, so good-bye."
"Executors?" gasped the lawyer.
"Public Trustee," said Isobel, over her shoulder.
"They say that she is one of these Suffragette women, although she keeps it dark. Well, I can believe it. Anyway, this officer is tumbling into honey, and there"s no fool like a woman in love," said the lawyer to himself as he packed his bag of papers.
Isobel was quite right. The question of settlements never even occurred to G.o.dfrey. He was aware, however, that it is usual for a bridegroom to make the bride a present, and going to London, walked miserably up and down Bond Street looking into windows until he was tired. At one moment he fixed his affections upon an old Queen Anne porringer, which his natural taste told him to be quite beautiful; but having learned from the dealer that it was meant for the mixing of infant"s pap, he retired abashed. Almost next door he saw in a jeweller"s window a necklace of small pearls priced at three hundred pounds, and probably worth about half that amount. Having quite a handsome balance at his back, he came to the conclusion that he could afford this and, going in, bought it at once, oblivious of the fact that Isobel already had ropes of pearls the size of marrowfat peas. However, she was delighted with it, especially when she saw what it had cost him, for he had never thought to cut the sale ticket from the necklace. It was those pearls, and not the marrowfat peas, that Isobel wore upon her wedding day. Save for the little ring with the two turquoise hearts, these were her only ornament.