...Like Rodin's great Hand--you know the thing!"
IV
I forget how many days intervened between that last breaking off of our
engagement and Marion's surrender. But I recall now the sharpness of my
emotion, the concentrated spirit of tears and laughter in my throat as
I read the words of her unexpected letter--"I have thought over
everything, and I was selfish...." I rushed off to Walham Green that
evening to give back all she had given me, to beat her altogether
at giving. She was extraordinarily gentle and generous that time, I
remember, and when at last I left her, she kissed me very sweetly.
So we were married.
We were married with all the customary incongruity. I gave--perhaps
after a while not altogether ungrudgingly--and what I gave, Marion took,
with a manifest satisfaction. After all, I was being sensible. So that
we had three livery carriages to the church (one of the pairs of horses
matched) and coachmen--with improvised flavour and very shabby silk
hats--bearing white favours on their whips, and my uncle intervened with
splendour and insisted upon having a wedding breakfast sent in from
a caterer's in Hammersmith.
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