Part 36 (2/2)
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 s.h.i.+pping 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.
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