Part 23 (2/2)
”_At Sea_ (_such and such a date._)
”_I, Jonathan Parsons, of the above named s.h.i.+p 'Carthusian,' of London, towards New Zealand, do hereby certify that I have this day united in the holy bands of wedlock the following persons, to wit: Herbert Barclay, Esquire, and Grace Bella.s.sys, Spinster, in the presence of the undersigned._”
”Nothing could be better,” said I.
”Now, gentlemen and ladies,” said the captain, ”if you will please to sign your names.”
This was done, and the doc.u.ment handed to me. I pocketed it with a clear sense of its value, as regards I mean the effect I might hope it would produce on Lady Amelia Roscoe. Captain Parsons and the others then shook hands with us, the two ladies kissing Grace, who, poor child, looked exceedingly frightened and pale.
”What is the French word for breakfast?” said Captain Parsons.
”_Deejenwer_, sir,” answered M'Cosh.
Parsons bent his ear with a frown. ”You're giving me the Scotch for it, I believe,” said he.
”It's _dejeuner_, I think,” said I, scarce able to speak for laughing.
”Ay, that'll be it,” cried the captain. ”Well, as Mr. and Mrs. Barclay don't relish the notion of a public _degener_, we must drink their healths in a bottle of champagne.”
He put his head out of the cabin and called to the steward, who brought the wine, and for hard upon half an hour my poor darling and I had to listen to speeches from old Parsons and the lawyer. Even M'Cosh must talk. In slow and rugged accents he invited us to consider how fortunate we were in having fallen into the hands of Captain Parsons.
Had _he_ been master of the _Carthusian_ there could have been no marriage, for he would not have known what to do. He had received a valuable professional hint that morning, and he begged to thank Captain Parsons for allowing him to be present on so interesting an occasion.
This said, the proceedings ended. Mrs. Barstow, pa.s.sing Grace's hand under her arm, carried her off to her cabin, and I, accepting a cigar from the captain's box, went on deck to smoke it and to see if there was anything in sight likely to carry us home.
A number of pa.s.sengers approached with smiling faces, guessing the wedding over, but they speedily perceived that I was in no temper for talking, and were good-natured enough to leave me to myself. Even Mr.
Tooth, who promised to become a bore, carried his jokes and his grins to another part of the deck in a very short while, and I leaned against the rail, cigar in mouth, lost in thought, casting looks at the sea, or directing my eyes over the side where the white water, in a wide and throbbing sheet, was racing past.
Married! Could I believe it? If so--if I was indeed a wedded man, then, I suppose, never in the annals of love-making could anything stranger have happened than that a young couple, eloping from a French port, should be blown out into the ocean and there united, not by a priest, by but a merchant skipper. And supposing the marriage to be valid, as Mr. Higginson, after due deliberation, had declared such ocean wedding ceremonies as this to be, and supposing when we arrived ash.o.r.e, Lady Amelia Roscoe, despite Grace's and my a.s.sociation and the ceremony which had just ended, should continue to withhold her sanction, thereby rendering it impossible for my cousin to marry us, might not an exceedingly fine point arise--something to put the wits of the lawyers to their trumps, in the case of her ladys.h.i.+p or me going to them? I mean this: that seeing that our marriage took place at sea, seeing, moreover, that we were in a manner urged, or, as I might choose to put it, _compelled_ by Captain Parsons to marry--he a.s.suming, as master of the s.h.i.+p, the position of guardian to the girl, and as her guardian exhorting and hurrying us to this union for her sake--would not the question of Lady Amelia Roscoe's consent be set aside, whether on the grounds of the peculiarity of our situation, or because it was impossible for us to communicate with her, or because the commander of the s.h.i.+p, a person in whom is vested the most despotic powers, politely, hospitably, but substantially, too, _ordered_ us to be married? I cannot put the point as a lawyer would, but I trust I make intelligible the thoughts which occupied my mind as I stood on the decks of the _Carthusian_ after quitting the captain's cabin.
About twenty minutes later, Grace arrived, accompanied by Mrs. Barstow.
My darling did not immediately see me, and I noticed the eager way in which she stood for some moments scanning the bright and leaping scene of ocean. The pa.s.sengers raised their hats to her, one or two ladies approached and seemed to congratulate her; she then saw me, and in a moment was at my side.
”How long is this to last, Herbert?”
”At any hour something may heave in sight, dearest.”
”It distresses me to be looked at. And yet, it is miserable to be locked up in Mrs. Barstow's cabin, where I am unable to be with you.”
”Do not mind being looked at. Everybody is very kind, Grace; so sweet as you are, too--who can help looking at you? Despite your embarra.s.sment, let me tell you that I am very well pleased with what has happened,” and I repeated to her what had been pa.s.sing in my mind.
But she was too nervous, perhaps too young to understand. She had left her gloves in the yacht, her hands were bare, and her fine eyes rested on the wedding ring upon her finger.
”Must I go on wearing this, Herbert?”
”Oh, yes, my own--certainly, whilst you are here. What would Captain Parsons say?--what would everybody think if you removed it?”
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